All These Strangers

[Verse 1] "Mistreat me darling and I might just disappear" Upon a freighter running dark out of Algiers Put tiny grains in children's tears While taking 25% of all those flashbulbs and mementos From the mechanized divisions rolling over your frontiers I saw my baby talking to a man today Speaking softly in a confidential way I saw a shadow pull his glove off As a bluebird flew over, life's no pleasure when you doubt the one you love Who are all these strangers? [Bridge] I never will go back again Go back into the past, the flood is rising fast You can break the window and look down Into the muddy glass for it's a mirror or a lens to burn [Verse 2] Now there's a deal done in Benghazi and Belgrade Upon a scimitar or other crooked blade Ransacks and loots, vacated suits And a pistol points but never shoots An army sitting in a locomotive yard without their boots Upstairs your man is painting rain out in the street Imagines women that he's destined still to meet He's trying to sidetrack one to count on Caught somewhere between a countess and a courtesan There's only love to feign and then it's gone Who are all these strangers? [Bridge] He's a privateer as dusk gets near A brigand after dark, his victim lined with chalk A corsair filled with horsehair to the core Dashed on eyes of Adamantine, you despised this stripling whine [Verse 3] That little smudger and the mouthpiece that he's with Using his clause just like a practised fingersmith I dreamed I took his digit prints And then I sewed them on a villain's hands and watched him ransom and demand And then called the flatfoots in [Bridge] I never will go back again Go back into the past, the flood is rising fast You can break the window and look down Into the muddy glass for it's a mirror or a lens to burn Who are all these strangers? [Outro] All these strangers Sat upon a narrow bed, thought about the things she said All these strangers How I wished the night would end, tried to stop the days ahead I'd carve her name down in the wood, some small remembrance if I could