Old man creeps in the streets in the puddles
Holds down the need to speak of his troubles
Both hands shake with the Parkinson's
That is starting to break him.
Darkening sun sets over the streetlights - a night with no stars in
One shadowy figure steps into a doorway
Where the whores play the same games as always.
The old man's seen it all before,
He could tell you some morbid stories
He's been through four wars and one divorce,
Carries a twitch that he got from the Blitz
He's had a lifelong lover lost to the void
He's seen his brothers destroyed
By the tick tock Bang Bang of reality ...
Just another picture to hang in the gallery.
You need to reach out
Into the darkness
Before it reaches you.
Old man sits on train as it rumbles
Over land soaked in rain and struggle ...
The motion of it shakes his brain in a muddle
Like Boggle dice contained in a bubble.
Man stops at stops in his pub crawl
In villages, on grubby stools.
He grins and orders in house double no rocks in it-
Got to sort out his own rubble
His mind is full of mumbles:
A jar full of colour in among bubblegum fools
None of these suckers get him. Numbness sets in Turns his stride to a stumble,
Tripping over his feet, back to the train
Rain seeps through cracks in the pane
Window frames him: Too old a man for a salary ...
Just another picture to hang in the gallery.
You need to reach out
Into the darkness
Before it reaches you.