The Old Man Smiled

Will you die for me?

Do you love me enough to give up your life?

Standing here in the desert

The crumbling city

How much do you love me?

Can the world be as sad as it seems?

At this the old man smiled

Sitting there in Tangier

Scars running from his wrist to his elbow

Perhaps I?ll buy his book today

And I look at the boy with me hand on his thigh

As I move to the bed in the corner

And he started to smile

A plaintive smile of the boy as he lies on the bed

And the old man smiled as his

Prick started to twitch twitch twitch

And little drops felt out and fell to the floor

And he looked to the side

Wondering what to do with his knowledge

Cold cold water in the bowl by the bed on the floor

23 days and 23 hours of the day

And the old man smiled as the being swelled and the blood came

As he stuck the needle in his arm

Watching the blood burning and turning in the glass

Wondering where he?d be sitting tomorrow

Wondering which table his person would pass that day

Sitting in a café in Tangier

And down to his cable came Captain Clark

He?d worked on the ferry for 23 years and a day

Taking the junkies and the babies and the corpses to Spain

Looking at the coffins in a line across the water

You sink if you?re dead

Cold cold water

A cloud up above

And everyone?s equal if it rains on you

And the old man smiled

And his arm bent as he paid the bill

So I walked round the corner

To a room in the Bowery

And the boy was bent double naked on the floor

Rubbing himself with some kind of cream

And is this all a dream

Look at the blind men

Sitting in a row with white sticks

Takking at the TV screen

And they try to eat us

By the broken bed

They?re always mad

And Captain Clark welcomes you aboard

Flight 23 from New York to Mayami

And it crashes in a forest

Burning bodies growing clod

People spewing blood from their faces

Screaming ?Why me?? ?Why??

And everyone says I?m mad

And everyone says I?m mad

The always say I?m mad

And I see myself in the gutter and the water

With the water wing gangrene dangling myself

Cos we really want to slaughter

Looking wide-eyed and so confused at the wall

It?s gone on so long I wonder just who is here

Cold cold water

Cold cold water

And the old man smiled as he walked back to the café

Drinking coffee as his friends just stood around

Can the world be as sad as it seems?

Do you love me?

With my knife against your throat

It could only be me

You would only do this for me

And the old man smiled

Just the same as before

Slowly getting old arranging his things

Making business neat and tidy

Sitting in a café in Tangier

That?s the way the world ends

With a whimper