Five Years

Pushing through the market square
So many mothers sighing (sighing)
News had just come over
We had five years left to cry in (cry in)
News guy wept and told us
Earth was really dying (dying)
Cried so much his face was wet
Then I knew he was not lying (lying)
I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies
I saw boys, and toys, and electric irons and TV's
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there

And all the fat, skinny people
And all the tall, short people
And all the nobody people
And all the somebody people
I never thought I'd need so many people
 
A girl my age went off her head
Hit some tiny children
If the black hadn't pulled her off
I think she would have killed them
A soldier with a broken arm
Fixed his stare to the wheels of a Cadillac
A cop knelt down and kissed the feet of a priest
And a queer threw up at the sight of that
I think I saw you in an ice cream parlor
Drinking milk shakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine
Don't think you knew you were in this song
And it was cold and it rained, so I felt like an actor
And I thought of Ma, I wanted to get back there
Your face, your race, and the way that you talk
I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk
 
We've got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
Five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got
Five years, what a surprise
Five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got
Five years, five long years

Five years, five long years
Five years, my brain hurts a lot

Five years, that's what we've got
Five years, that's all we've got
Five years

Five years

Five years
Five long years
Five long years
Five long years
That's all we've got