Chalk Flowers

[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