Five Years

Pushing through the market square

So many mothers sighing

News had just come over

We had five years left to cry in

News guy wept and told us

Earth was really dying

Cried so much his face was wet

Then I knew he was not lying

I heard telephones, opera house, favourite melodies

I saw boys, toys, electric irons and TVs

My brain hurt like a warehouse

It had no room to spare

I had to cram so many things

To store everything in there

And all the fat-skinny people

And all the tall-short people

And all the nobody people

And all the somebody people

I never thought I'd need so many people

A girl my age went off her head

Hit some tiny children

If the black hadn't a-pulled her off

I think she would have killed them

A soldier with a broken arm

Fixed his stare to the wheel of a Cadillac

A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest

And a queer threw up at the sight of that

I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlour

Drinking milk shakes cold and long

Smiling and waving and looking so fine

Don't think you knew you were in this song

And it was cold and it rained, so I felt like an actor

And I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there

Your face, your race, the way that you talk

I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk

We've got five years, stuck on my eyes

We've got five years, what a surprise

We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot

We've got five years, that's all we've got