Village life continues apace Race around the corners, Boys abroad Coasting along the straight, space for faces, on the Noticeboard Calling out as if trapped behind bars Cars on the grass like skeletons Faraway places, silver coins Foreign tongues and final scores Closing time Walk along the railway line Mind the shit and trains Shine the light Isolated shady out-of-towners Café owners with pebble drives Anything you want Can be delivered Guns mounted under the mirror Why would you walk? Do you think you’ll live forever? Where the fallen houses lie The football pitch is a building site No one plays In unconsecrated ground Entire generations turn In their graves Names on the cenotaph Are the same As under the photograph Anything you want…

Summer’s here and the time is right For packing your bags in the middle of the night To head for Gatwick And beat the traffic Power stations and past the Ram Jam Six hours if you put your foot down Park and ride To the Departures side Check your passport, count your children “Did you pack this bag yourself, sir?” Gather them around like pilgrims Ride the travelator Going back to the beach We’re staying out of reach Incognito for €90 a day Plastic cups and green gelatos Flat bread and fresh dorados Hissing in the pan Peroni from the can Pay the man for an hour canoeing Get the coach to the Roman ruin Smoke a cigarette Watch the sun set To the hotel, turn the phone on Remind yourself of what you’re missing Pick up e-mail, see the world of Useless information Going back to the beach We’re staying out of reach Incognito for €90 a day Pack the suncream, Pack the snorkel Rolled-up towel and a sci-fi novel Due birre, per favore grazie mille Going back to the beach We’re staying out of reach Incognito for €90 a day A E DAE C#m, D, E, F#m Bm, D, E

It should be quiet out here Drifting away from the airlock, free But all I’ve got in my ear Are crackling voices talking at me There goes the mothership Running ahead of the curve How’s your oxygen holding? When do I get a turn Circling the Earth? See the mountains below Like Christmas paper around a ball We’ve got nowhere to go Crackling voices, calling, calling Stay away from the engines Counting down to a burn How’s your oxygen holding? When do I get a turn Circling the Earth? Frost on the visor It’s too cold to see Untethered, teeth chatter They’re pulling away from me They’re telling me I’m the first The voices want to celebrate Looking down on the earth I just tell them, give me some space My head’s freezing in shadow My feet are burned by the sun How’s your oxygen holding? When do I get a turn Circling the Earth? verse: D, Dmaj7, Bm, F#m Em, A7, Em-F#m-G-A7+4 chorus: F#m, Bm, G6, A7+4 middle: A, A+2, A7

If John Lennon were alive, he’d be back on the stage Everyone says he’s not bad for his age Ever since the divorce, he’s been a man reborn Got to hand it to the band, with Julian and Sean Guitar held up high, and still singing sweet Bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet He’s got nothing on top, long and grey at the collar He’d dye it like Paul but he just can’t be bothered If John Lennon were alive, he’d have pissed away his cash On eighties cocaine and the stock market crash And endless legal actions against Yoko and Paul Rehab and reboots, trips to Nepal Prayer shawls and pub crawls, snowballs and trunk calls Visas for squeezes, tease the believers He’s bigger than Jesus In spite of it all If John Lennon were alive, he’d be living on pills A shadow of himself since he married Heather Mills He’s not done a decent song since 1991 Everyone knows Yoko got the best out of John Like old men before him, he’s turned to the right He shouts about not being ashamed to be white Some old women cry, we all roll our eyes Would it be better if John Lennon had died? Prayer shawls and pub crawls… If John Lennon were alive he’d be eighty years old Yoko’s got his money, but he’s still got his soul He’s a hard-luck, bankrupt, New York dead-duck Drinking coffee in a downtown Starbucks What’s changed, Mr Lennon? It’s your five minute call What’s changed? I’ll tell you: square root of fuck all Where's my guitar? Let’s play some rock’n’roll I’m bigger than Jesus, in spite of it all Prayer shawls and pub crawls…

In a dark corner of the garden There stands a crooked wall Broken by the roots of an old poplar tree It’s a wonder it stands at all There used to be a raised bed Where nothing seemed to grow One morning my dear wife said You could build yourself a shed, you know I really need you out of here, my love Don’t take it personally Every day’s the same and I’ve had enough Of the wall, you and that damned poplar tree So build it strong and build it high Just don’t try to build it square Fill it up with whatever you like You’ve got yourself a good spot there It’s got two walls of bricks Two walls of wood A felt roof like a good shed should There are no right angles And no parallels It’s my lockdown lockup and I made it myself At the back of the shed there’s a barbecue With gloves and knives and tongs A barbecue doesn’t get much use When it rains all winter long But when summer comes, we’ll fire it up And throw open the gate The garden will be all lit up They’ll be queuing up for steak There are shelves screwed into every wall And tools hung up on nails Bike pump, boxing gloves and a cricket ball And an old pair of dinghy sails When I’m all forgotten and gone When I’m six feet underground No one’s going to remember this song But my shed will still be around

Vapour trail Saltire Blood orange incandescence Shine on frisbee moon Footsteps on the path Size sevens kicking gravel Stick taps out a tune Discarded bottle Exploded under car wheels Just the neck survives Suitcases waiting Standing stones on the doorstep Point towards sunrise G, G7-5, E, A7

Twenty miles from Redcar in a red car Watching the tankers out at sea Sheltering from the rain behind a windscreen Twenty miles from where I ought to be The radio’s playing yesterday’s songs And the DJ’s saying: ‘Do you remember this one?’ People come from miles just to be here You can’t move when it’s not pissing down There’s a telescope for watching the boats Gives you five minutes for a pound But it’s stair-rods today and I’m all alone And the DJ’s saying: ‘Was this your song?’ Twenty miles from Redcar in a red car Staring out the window, asking why The car’s full of juice But I can’t seem to move I’ve got nothing to prove - now that’s a lie. When the rain stops I will still be here Tanker ships will still be on their way Turbines spin in the February wind But I’m afraid that I am here to stay The radio’s playing yesterday’s songs And the DJ’s saying: ‘Do you remember this one?’ Twenty miles from Redcar in a red car Staring out the window, asking why The car’s full of juice But I can’t seem to move I’ve got nothing to prove - now that’s a lie. Verse: G, C, D, C+9, D, G (x2) D, C+9, D7 Chorus: C+9, D, G C+9, D, Em A7, C+9, D

Delilah Chase opens up her case Pulls out the papers for the meeting Nary a trace of doubt on Delilah’s face Turn the dial up on the heating no time to rest. This is not a test. It’s time for the boys to take a beating Watch them sweat, close to her chest If you don’t get caught, it’s not cheating Still no time to rest, just be the best Apples are there for the eating Delilah Chase, puts them in their place Listen because she won’t be repeating Up and down the city road In and out of the Eagle The legal boys are paying, so Off to the casino Delilah Chase, it’s not always a race Don’t drink until you’ve read the label Delilah Chase lays down another ace Scrapes up her winnings from the table It’s not my doing - no one’s been ruined I can’t help it if i’m special

Deep in the woods, where the beasts are the queens There’s a story that beast mothers tell About how everything is not quite as it seems And they say to the kids: ‘Mark it well.’ And when they say: ‘Mark it,’ that’s just what they mean They mean: ‘Pee on a tree or a post.’ They mean: Mark it to keep out the last human beings The ones that the beasts call the Ghosts. ‘But humans are tasty, delicious and good,’ Say the beast-children, drooling a little. ‘And the beast-goddess made them to be beast-food, With their muscly legs and fat middles. And crunchy front paws with spindly claws That we use as toothpicks and back-scratchers, And although they’re quite big, they’re not quick at all So we hunt them, and they can’t catch us. Why do we want the Ghosts to steer clear? Why do we stop them from coming? Why not just let the humans walk here, Instead of us beasts going hunting?’ ‘I’ll tell you for why,’ says the mother-of-beasts, ‘You see, all you kids know is the present The times that we live are heaven - a feast But once it was so very different The rivers alive with salmon and trout Lily fronds, larvae and otters: The beautiful world in which we run about Was not always this way, little daughters Once there were millions of humans to see Like flies on a big heap of dung And when you saw humans, you’d hide in a tree, Dig a hole, fly away, or just run Mostly the humans would be inside boxes Like the ones we see scattered around But then they’d appear on horses, and foxes Would run from their slavering hounds Every few days they’d come into the woods In packets of four, five and six All wrapped up in cotton and thick plastic hoods All poking the ground with their sticks All stamping and running around on two legs And barking away at each other At sunset they’d hammer in sharp metal pegs And sleep under thick plastic covers The beasts who lived next to the human beings With troughs full of pellets and hay And protection and shelter - or so it seemed until, once a year, came the day That the beasts would be herded into metal crates. Moving boxes would pull them away In time we all learned of the terrible fate That became of the beasts that day And all of the beasts that lived in the wood Would scurry and burrow and hide When humans arrived - they were up to no good You make friends with a human? You die. And that was the rule as we all understood See a human: ears back, run for cover Get back to your own special part of the wood Your warren or den, and your mother. They cut down the trees and they flattened the land For their boxes to move on, and then They hammered in posts with big metal hands. We couldn’t see how it would end But then things changed, the humans got less The boxes all seemed to stop moving When humans stopped coming and making a mess The woodland was suddenly thriving Flowers and trees burst clean through the dirt Where the humans’ two feet had trodden Colour began to come back to the earth The worst of the terrors forgotten Beasts walked across the land that was flattened Without boxes with bright lights to hit them insects with wings in myriad patterns Fed on flowers with no humans to pick them The beasts of the fields that the humans once ate Broke through the wires to be free We all have reverted to our natural state In the woods, moors and down to the sea And some beasts fear other beasts - that’s how it is But we all live our lives as we should The last of the humans huddle in cities And the beasts all hunt them for food But beware of the ghosts, of the humans that wander Away from the cities alone Their metal sticks with a crack like thunder Can still being a brave beast down So although they are fur-less, flabby and weak And hopelessly easy to fight Although they’re delicious when turned into steak Be careful which humans you bite.

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