Five Years

Pushing through the market square
So many mothers sighing
News had just come over, we had five years left to cry in
News guy wept and told us, earth was really dying
Cried so much, his face was wet, then I knew, he was not lying

I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies
I saw boys, toys, 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 of my age went off her head, hit some tiny children
If the black hadn't a-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 and kissed the feet of a priest
And a queer threw up at the sight of that

I think I saw you in an icecream parlour
Drinking milkshakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine
I don't think you knew you were in this song
And it was cold and it raind, so I felt like an actor
And I thought of ma and I wanted to get back there
Your face, your race, the way that you talk
I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk