Five years

Pushing thru 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
He said ‘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
There were boys, toys electric irons and T.V.’s
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
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
And I think she would have killed them

A soldier with a broken armfixed
His stare to the wheels of a Cadillac
A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest
And a queer threw up at the sight of that

Well, 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 miss you, you’re beautiful

We’ve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that’s all we’ve got
We’ve got
Five years