You Weren't There

Well, you say it's such a small, small world

flying Club Class back from the far-east

curled up safe and warm in the big chair

you were drifting through the skies of anywhere

Get the courtesy car to the Sheraton

there's live on-the-spot reports on the CNN between the ad-breaks

so you think you know what's going on - but you don't

because you weren't in Belfast, no you weren't there

and no you weren't in Waco, no you weren't there

and you weren't in Kosovo, you weren't there

and you weren't in my head so you don't know how it felt

walking arm in arm with crowds to the square

and the banners waving and the sun glinting

All this information swims round and round

like a shoal of fish in a tank going nowhere

Up and down between the glass walls

You're so safe in the knowledge they're impenetrable

and you look out at the world and see nothing at all

so go back to sleep and you'll be woken when the time comes

and you'll never know just what hit you or where it came from

because you weren't in Bradford, no you weren't there

and you weren't on the hill, no you weren't there

and you weren't with us so you never saw

just what happened when the television crews came knocking on the door

how the people told them all to go to Hell,

smashed the cameras and sent them away

There were sirens going off and policemen coming in

and all that you love was being swept away

in the rush of a black tide all done in your name

and you'll never know just what happened there

or how it feels - just how it feels . . .