Ceasefire

Fifteen year old Francis, we need to have a word
I know because I remember
That you cannot stand The Verve
But Richard Ashcroft had a point
Now I'm old enough to see
There's a million different people
You will be before you're me

I know I'm not
Everything that you had hoped and imagined that I would be
But I did my best
And I have seen things that you don't even know that you've never seen
We need to find some common ground
In the ruins that still stand
Between you and me
Both of us want peace
Ceasefire

I'm haunted by a ghost
Who hides inside my body
Raging, rattling chains
Fifteen year old me
He judges my decisions, He scorns what I've become
And the hatred that consumes me
Starts and ends with him
I know I'm not
Everything that you had hoped and imagined that I would be
But I did my best
And I have seen things that you don't even know that you've never seen
We need to find some common ground
In the ruins that still stand
Between you and me
Both of us want peace
Ceasefire
Then I came to, clutching a paper map
Tattered and full of holes, and wandering through the ruins
Of North East London
And I suspect if somehow I could hold
This map up to the sun, I'd somehow find new words
Written in the backstreets
And just perhaps, if I could stitch together
My evenings and my weekends like cells within a film
They'd tell you the story
That you need to hear

That everything that you had hoped and imagined that you would be
Might not work out
You'll find yourself stuck in the ruins with maps that you cannot read
So come now let's make peace
Between you and me
I can't leave you behind
You're always on my mind
This is ridiculous
I cannot live like this
Undone, undiagnosed
Begging forgiveness of a ghost
Ceasefire
Ceasefire
Ceasefire
Ceasefire