Heaven in Hell

And it is all just a little bit like
Heaven in hell
Your brothers they know you
Your sisters know you well
And this is all a little bit like
Heaven in Hell

The songs are like stringlets
The birds like silohettes
moving across the sky
Like burning cigarettes
Against a dying sun

The bog of tears
Like a rollercoaster
Floating in the sunrise
Like a May fly
over the pond
Daddy long legs in the corner
Of the ceiling bouncing off the wall
Joy of you is reeling
From the corner of the hall

There is a pulse in the blood in the walk of the fool
There is the song of the sea in the nautilus shell
There is a memory of my mother showing me
This Heaven in Hell

There are bricks and mortar
Sticks and stones
Bread and butter
Blood and bones
And all of these I know too well
As I walk into this Heaven in Hell

Song of my father, song of my son
Song of my daughter like a reflection
Down a well
Speaking from the forest
Speaking from the cave
Speaking from unseen trees that fell
Talking about a Heaven in Hell

Dogs in the dirt road
Talking like an old toad
Baking in the hot sun
Hiding under a stone
In the shadows of a tolling bell
Ringing out for this Heaven in Hell

Tears in Budapest

Well I know I'm not my best
But these tears
Continue to fall
Like leaves in the rain
They take away my pain
From the hours that always seem
The same

Tears in Budapest and the river it is blessed
From
The paragons of rest
Who nestle in their nests
In the ivory towers
Letting down their locks
Under lock down
Over river docks
And scenes of lock and key
Where nobody is free
Except to cry their
Tears in Budapest

Tears in Budapest
The reasons flow
Through bridges guessed
Like hopes raised
Like eye-brows
Like frowns
Like smiles upside down
Over the topsy turvy Danube
That scurries, and bowls
And tumbles and rolls
In its mouths open
And gaping in shouts
And words, and language
That wriggles and bursts out
From the blisters of boils
And current buns of the thirsty
Turbulent flow

And over arching them
Are these Eyes with their lids
That open and close
In daft surprise and blink
Over the Danube sink
And basin, and drain
Where Tears in Budapest fall
Like leaves in the rain

The Rain and the Wind

Oh the rain came down
Like jewels on a crown
Of the land that refused to be
Reigned on
and its belief systems shocked
Like a baby that was rocked
In the cradle of civilization
It was feigned on

And sallow creatures lie
In river beds that cry
Of armies who have marched across plains
When the rains fell on them
It was like a long lost friend
That they embraced
And were gone in dreaming

You can hold the whole world
Inside a paper cup
And drink it til it dries
Until you might give up
But who will run out first
It is not for me to say
All I know is you can try it on for size

The love that I recall
Hardly stands up against the wall
The jokes that I tell
As the fall guy
Well the joke was on me
I was too blind to see
All of the things people were telling me
And you can show it still
With the tickets and the bills
The size of the debt I am owing
But it means nothing's past
Nor lost behind the glass
For the rain falls and the wind keeps
Blowing

You needed to be there

You  needed to be there
I tried to tell you how I felt
I was talking to a brick wall
Speaking like a welt
Suffering sympathies
Like an angry Celt
Suffice it to say
You needed to be there

I used to owe you something
I'll remember it in time
If you break the last straw
I can drink my whisky and lime
It reminds me of a story
That happened to me but hey
Let's just say
You needed to be there

There was this man I know he owned a horse
It was a force of nature but it couldn't last the course
It ran off one day, while in it's prime
I thought it belonged to you
But found out it was mine
You should have known better since it was munching your hay
Let's just say
You needed to be there

All the times I needed you
Where were you in my prime?
All the days, the long hours of walking
The ticking tickets, the licking limes
If anyone says I'm bitter they better
Chew over my crime
Let's just say
You needed to be there

What's the damage?

And the writing on the wall reads
Whats the damage?

I ask you to call
But the song birds took your throat
They were off with the pussy cat
In a bobbing boat
And I saw it in a letter that
Somebody wrote
All it read at the end was
What's the damage?

The church yards are crazy
Like graffitti of doom
The houses are all empty
Nobody's renting a room
And a clause on the lease reads
Come back here soon
Then: What's the damage?

Oh are hearts are so empty
Like mansions of the elite
They lay out their banquets
For others to eat
But when friends shake hands
They always pass on something sweet
So then what's the damage?

I bring you out the wreckage
Time and time again and find
The pieces of the stoppage
After extra time
And you know the king is in his castle
And the peasants drink his wine
The fires in the hearth
And I see you in your prime
So I say: What's the damage?

Cinderella Mother

She is slipping under the carpet
Under the rug
Being forgotten about
Forgetting to sweep up
There
She leaves
Traces of her dust
And we know she has been there
By her fingerprints

Did she ever go to the ball?
Why yes
She wore the glass slipper too
And she danced
Oh how she danced
I can remember her
Swirling on the floor

I remember the hour
Then the minutes before
Midnight
When the cruel clock strikes
And another day of life is done

Where is her Prince Charming?
Where is her sun?
It is setting now
Going down over the brow
Of the hill
Soon her time will come
Soon her day will be done

And the glass slipper will be put back on the shelf
The clothes, the dresses and gowns
Will be hung up, put away into the closet
And the doors finally closed
For good

Hercules in Harrods

I've seen you in the bushes
In the burly Roman guard
I've seen you keeping vigil
Outside the tower of the shard
That reaches up to heaven
But it reaches oh so hard
Oh all you ever needed
Was to shuffle your cards

I've seen you in the wasteland of a certain despair
And in  the Angel land of haste and lightfooted care
I've see you in the faces of the disgraced
And overwrought
But all these marbled insults of incidents
Add up to nought

Go keep the goalies head warm with your wooly thought
Go save him from defeat in the land of golden sport
Where all is fair in love as it is in war
Oh go hang all your consequences upon a new year's wall

There are scenes we must walk on through
There are days alone that we all are due
And to say each day is numbered, well the thought is true
But come hold to me your promises of a lifetime's hue

Don't yield in the beginning when the men are bold
And the shipwrecks to the mermaids have all been sold
And the sailors sew their yarns into another fold
Just bring me in your harbour, warm my cold

I'll bake with you for hours in the sun's strong rays
And hold counsels in the towers for days and days
And one by one your powers will be saved
For all the delicate flowers bowed their heads and waved