Swiss Cottage Maneuvers

Swiss Cottage Maneuvers

On a Christmas cake day one Friday in August

In a book shop in Charing Cross Road

I first set eyes on a girl and at once I didn't know

She had eyes like a poet and hair like a rainbow

Reflecting the lights that did glow

And the sadness she kept in her eyes

Struck my senses a blow

And so as by chance at the touch of a glance

We could find ourselves out in the road

With no crush of time to defeat us and no place to go

And I couldn't say how but the coffee bar crowd

Had appeared through the silence that broke

And she said "Oh my father's a judge in St Albans you know."

Oh well, then perhaps I could help you

You know that St. Albans is miles away

And I've got a room in Swiss Cottage in which you could stay

She laughed "Oh I couldn't do that, for I've got to be up in the

morning you see."

So I rang up to find out the first morning train she could take.

And so in the gloom of a candlelit room

With spaghetti, two forks and plate

She said "Oh I really would like to be free and escape."

Oh well if it's like that, you don't have to go back

and you're perfectly welcome to stay

"But I've not finished school yet." she said as she got into bed

And so as she slept and the pure morning crept through the windows

to take her away

I thought you can't make people be what you want them to be

I could see my self nailed to a dormitory tale of a holiday night's

escapade

And just yesterday she had seemed like a woman to me

and so like a child with the sleep in her eyes

Where the sadness of age had once been

She left on the train with a "See you again" and a smile

And I couldn't say what I had won or I lost

Or even just what I had seen

But when I'm alone I just think of her once in awhile.