1. |
January
05:05
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January first
My new year's resolution is to learn the second verse of Auld Lang Syne
Broken by the third
In the time it takes to show the door to Old Father Time
Pushing off from old Lands End
Raise a toast to absent friends
Poised above the soil
The blade, the spade, the good-intentioned resolutions fall
To be jolted, jounced and jarred
As the frozen earth's resistance sees you gather up the seeds
Head back indoors
Just off the coast of Finisterre
Setting sail for who knows where
Clothes damp with the melting snow
Dream your dreams of Capistrano
Stoke the stove and plump the sofa
Follow where the swallows go
January blows in cold
Wind chill makes it even colder
Through the hollows of your bones
Chills the blood and turns the soul to ice
The colours drain out of the day
And all that interrupts the grey
Are January blues
The blank space on the wall
As from calendar to calendar we carbon-copy all
Just to find ourselves once more
In the flyleaves and the end-papers of every book we've ever read before
Hoisting sails hand over hand
Set a course for Newfoundland
For the sake of auld lang syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
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2. |
I'm Not Here
03:45
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My eyes are ringing and my ears are sore
There's things out there that I can't ignore
So draw the curtains and lock the door
I've no appetite for more
Silence the bells, stop all the clocks
Lose the phone, let the laptop drop
There's being nothing said that I want to hear
And if anybody wants me I'm not here
'Cause where I'm going you can't go
With my shoulder colder than the arctic snow
I'll be harder to reach than the Eskimo
With a hundred words for 'no'
Do not disturb, can't you read the signs?
I'll be hunkering down for the longest time
With a blanket, a book and a Belgian beer
And if anybody wants me I'm not here
I'm not here, if the phone rings let it ring
I'm not here, if it's the president or king
You can just tell them I'm not in
You might think a witch has cast her spell
You might think I've lost my magic
Well, just watch me as I disappear
And if anybody wants me I'm not here
I said if anybody wants me I'm not here
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3. |
You
02:53
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A heart-shaped solid silver locket
Like a fob-watch in my top pocket
Ticks and bears a hall-mark just for you
Taken from the red hot coals
And branded on my very soul are your initials
Property of you
On my arm I bear a proud tattoo
A rose, a heart, the name of who
If anything should happen to
If lost then please return me to
You
My heart's a purse that's full to bursting
But the only thing of any worth
Is a faded crumpled photograph of you
I swear upon this very ring
You have me wrapped around your finger
Hand in hand forevermore with you
Tied up in a rope lasso
Chains and double padlocked too
With staples and with superglue
Forevermore I'm sticking to
You
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4. |
Home
03:52
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With mortar, bricks and sticks
With elbow-grease and wit
With common-sense, affection and occasionally force
The love that we have poured
Spills out all over these four walls
The house that has become our home
With charity, panache
Perhaps just a healthy dose of slap-dash
The fixtures and the fittings have all fallen into place
In every piece of furniture
An indentation of our bones
In the house that has become our home
Occasionally on cold dark nights
I walk imaginary dogs
Around the houses in the neighbourhood
For hours and hours and hours
Imagining if I could just walk in on any life
The only door I'd open would be ours
Ours is a home where love has grown
Learned to read and stand alone
There's a corner for the tantrums and a chimney for the heat
A drainpipe for the tears that we have shed
For those who've flown
From the house that has become
After all is said and done
This is the house that has become our home
Ours is a home
Somewhere to call your own
Four walls, a door, a roof and you
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5. |
Nowhere
04:00
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When the party is over we're the last ones to know
But the first ones to leave when the time comes to go
With scabs on our knuckles and grease in our hair
With rocks in our pockets we ain't going nowhere
With miles in the headlights and stones round our waist
With a left-handed awkwardness to Dover with haste
Blinking shortsightedly with a thousand-yard-stare
With no smiles on our passports 'cause we ain't going nowhere
We ain't going nowhere, not a hint of the breeze in our hair
Not a hint of a clue what to wear
We foolishly stare at the sun
Blinded by the glare, unable to see what we've done
Standing there trousers undone
English and foolish and dumb Ignorant, arrogant, numb
We ain't going nowhere
Pulling together on both ends of a rope
While the crows in the guttering pull up the green shoots of hope
Signing crosses on ballot sheets like kisses on air
As we wave from the terminal, 'cause we ain't going nowhere
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6. |
Fledgling
02:46
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Fledgling who knows where you're heading
With your clothes, your laptop, books and bedding
With your papers saying you're smarter than us
And a ticket for the north-bound bus
Fledgling since you've fledged and fled
Each night I listen from my bed
To the tutting of the kitchen clock
I still leave the door unlocked
Fledgling now the roost is tidier
Every room is cleaner, quieter, wider
More house, more home with just us only
Less housework yes but much less homely
Fledgling is your phone not ringing?
I've been perched upon the rooftop singing
Your voice comes on the answerphone
To tell us that you're not at home
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7. |
Flagbearers
04:11
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I'm a stranger here myself
Washed up on the shore many centuries before
Just a mongrel like yourself: part gypsy, part hun
An itinerant son from God knows where
We are all of us strangers
Sometimes my bed is somewhere else
Asleep on the floor of a distant shore
Where though there may be nothing on the shelf
I'm welcomed despite the disgrace of my forefathers
Welcomed despite the behaviour of flag-bearers
The rose, the thistle, the shamrock, the daffodil
Borne on the wind across mountain and ocean
Until self-seeding randomly, thriving untended
Native by accident, falling where happenstance falls
We are all of us strangers
Ours is a green and pleasant land
Built on rich fertile soil and physical toil
But I see no blisters on your hands
Yet you call yourself English, well bully for you
Is that a medal of honour or a badly drawn bulldog tattoo?
The rose, the thistle, the shamrock, the daffodil
Borne on the wind across mountain and ocean
Until self-seeding randomly, thriving untended
Native by accident, falling where happenstance falls
We are all of us strangers
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8. |
Wrong
03:32
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You sign your name on your side of the wall
The flags are raised and a line is drawn
With ayes to the left, your nose knows what's right
You know that you have to be strong
When anyone questions the cause of your plight
You know you must stand with throng
It's hard to stand tall for what you know to be right
But it's so much harder to be wrong
You sign your name, 'til death do us part
Your songs converging, two mouths but one heart
The melody's sweet, the harmony's sweeter
And the birds and the bees sing along
But the tune disappears and the words get forgotten
When you're shouting much louder than the song
It's hard to back down when you know you are right
But it's so much harder to be wrong
Throw down your gun put your hands in the air
Bite down on your lip and smile
Swallow your pride let them have the last word
You know you're right but just say you are wrong
There on your screen, there on the roads
Their mouths ever open, their eyes ever closed
They hammer the keys, spill out all their bile
Press all of your buttons and though
It takes all of your tact and all your self-discipline
To keep your hands of them you know that you have been
Fighting stupidity your whole life long
But it's only the stupid who are never wrong
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9. |
Heartache
02:23
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Put the car in reverse, let's go back and we'll rehearse
One more time but this time with no mistakes
We'll hide our tracks in the snow, pretend we didn't know
That heartache awaits
Let's play up our ignorance and spend the night as fools
Happily oblivious to our fates
Let's make love like teenagers unguarded, unaware
That heartache awaits
Heartache waits in the wings
For all the love to swing to one side
And then severs the ties
Leaves you broken asking why
So hand me back my keys, call a taxi for me please
If see me act as if we never met
If we pretend it never started we can never reach the end
Where heartache awaits
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10. |
Alone
04:20
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Oh for the romance of navigation by the stars
We know where we are by the headlights of the cars
But let's pretend we're lost for just a little longer
At least until the others have all gone home
And we can be alone
Up there beyond the reach of the redwood and the pine
The zodiac spells out your fate and mine
But we've no truck with superstition, no deities for us
Not here, not now, so far away from home
We are alone
Alone beyond the influence of duty, guilt and shame
Adrift amidst the darkness, no place, no race, no name
Abandoned in the wilderness, no sense of space or time
And for the briefest perfect moment I am absolutely yours
And you are absolutely mine
Rain flicks the leaves and the wind whips through the trees
And a lighter darkness spills out across the sky
The headlights of the cars lead us back to where we started from
We buckle up and drive ourselves back home
In silence, together but alone
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Paul Armfield Isle Of Wight, UK
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