Five Years

Pushing through the market square So many mothers sighing News had just come over We had five years left to sigh in News guy wept and squarely told us 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 I saw boys, toys, electric irons and TVs My brain hurt like a warehouse, had no room to spare I had to cram so much everything in there 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 I think she would have killed them A soldier with a broken arm Fixed 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 And 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 kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk 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 stuck on my eyes Five years, what a surprise Five years, my brain hurts a lot Five years, that's all we've got We've got five years Five years, stuck on my eyes Five years Five years