My Egyptian Couch

Lyrics

Now here's a book full of photographs That my ancestors made some generations ago They're wearing the lastest clothes in a nautical way The Suez Canal close behind is frozen in time The deck crews star out of a mime And they seem to be considering me Here on my Egyptian couch O the life on Edwardian steamships Is measured and slow, while down below There are fires that shudder and clang and thunder And sweat-caked in smoke, and cauldrons to stoke To send the ship on her way Tasting the salt and the spray And a century later I scan the equator From my Egyptian couch And the news every day brings Contains the strangest of things But with confident smilesw my forebears decline To gaze into the wings So they look from the photographs And they're curious now, wondering how we turned out Let's say like the Chinese adage We're living our lives in interesting times