There was a boy who came into this world at the hands of a holy woman in a holy place
He wore a red coat and walked a bulldog, saw them reflected in the mirror of the lakes
Lived in the shadow of the mountains with the smells of disinfectant
Dusty old leather and the polished wood of his bed
No more than a baby feeding swans on the river, holding the hands of his mother
And the wax paper bag of yesterday's bread
And his father on the other side of the world on the ship's railings and some far away tide
With the silent dry tear of home thoughts from abroad in his far away eyes
In his far away eyes
The smell of the wax on the wooden floor, mixture of polish and soap
No children to fear or to play with, rows of empty hooks for the coats
An upright piano and the boys in the choir still remind him of just before he was born
Remind him of just before he was breathing, strange misty visions of God
Turn the cities into families, into villages of souls
Hovering in the air while they're sleeping, with their houses invisible
Send to me the ghosts of Christmas, whispering, "You're the only one"
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And ever since I was a boy, I never felt that I belonged
Or would I spit it back at them and not get caught up in their rules
And live according to my own and not be used, not be used
To find the fundamental truths, it was gonna take some time
Thirty-five summers down the line, the wisdom of each passing year
Seems to serve only to confuse, seems to serve only to confuse
Daddycame out of the navy and took us away to his dirty grey home town
And he worked down a coal mine for National Service so that he could be around
There was a magical purple in the chrome of the exhaust of his Triumph motor bike
And a warmth of oil and metal and the thrill of the hard corner holding tight
From the horizon came home from the Navy to the mine
From the horizon to buried alive
Took his dream underground
Buried his treasure in his faraway eyes
And one day as the boy lay sleeping in the sunshine of a half-remembered afternoon
A cloud of bees with no particular aim and no brain found the boy
Decided that his time had come
Came down out of the sky, stung him in the face again and again
Blue pain, screaming like baptism, intravenous, Jesus
Like being chosen from something with no brain, blue pain
It's happening again, it's happening again
Oh, Mummy, Daddy, will you sit a while with me?
Oh, Mummy, Daddy, will you jog my memory?
Tell me tall tales of Montego Bay, Table Mountain, flying fish
Banana spiders, pots of paint and the sun on the Equator
Setting like an ember thrown to deep water
From crimson to black
But coming back tomorrow
On the horizon
The blue pain fades to a point where it doesn't fade
It stayed blue
And stirred his red coat heart to this strange engine
This love, this love, this love
This inconvenient, blind blood-diamond, this puzzle
This love, this blind blood-diamond, this puzzle, I don't understand
That knows no faith and tries and fails and tries again
Stares at the sea, the night's dark deep for one last time
And bleeds and bleeds and dies for you
And lies and is to blame and is ashamed
And is not the same and is true
Is true, is true, is true, is true, is true, is true, is true, is true