Chalk Flowers

Lyrics

[Verse 1] After midnight, everybody left the houses for the alleys Checked out the neighbors' windows when looking for a fire She beckoned me towards her, she moved her fingers forward The jasmine bloomed and I just smiled [Verse 2] She said, "Where are you going?" I said, "Nowhere you'd have heard of" There's a cornfield by an avenue when all the clouds arе still A horseman on a ridgeway, though he's imaginary And ovеr to the west, a king sleeps in the hill [Verse 3] It's kind of like when evening comes The moment you aren't looking And then you get the chills, but you know you're alive And when she reached to kiss me, I knew there was no escaping As kids set fires where the goods vans drive [Verse 4] We went up to the tenement where she lived with her sister And there beside the lamplight, she undressed without a smile And I had no idea I'd be in bits and pieces As I flowered through her skin and she flowered through mine [Verse 5] I took her to the cornfield, I took her to the greenwood I took her to the places I had loved as a child And when at last, I lost her in a pillbox on the hill I threw [?] matches down into a pond [Verse 6] The king's sleep is unbroken, the hospice windows open At night I dream of oramorph and simple childhood games And when I came back home, somebody'd left the lights on And all that I am is changed [Verse 7] In the streets they tell the future, watch birds choosing numbers And they glide to the lines in the palm of your hand It's a word you can't remember in the corner of your memory It says that she loved you, but you don't understand [Verse 8] By the end of November, there was diesel in the gutters And I'd made up my mind I would head back south The wind blew through the city Through the palaces and priest halls I packed my bags and I shut my mouth