Youth and Art

It once might have been, once only We lodged in a street together You a sparrow on the housetop lonely Your trade was with sticks and clay You thumbed thrust, pattered and polished Then laughed they will see some day Smith made and Gibson demolished My business was song, song, song I chirped, cheeped, trilled and twittered 'Kate Browns on the boards ere long, And Grisi's existence embittered We studied hard in our styles Chipped each at a crust like hindoos For air looked at the tiles For fun watched each others windows Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh You shook your notes and sat in smoke Gossiped about who was in love with who Gave a nasty little speech about my beautiful boy Kept me on my toes like it was condition one Don't forget people remember You got the letter Return to sender And I soon managed to find Weak points in the flower fencing facing Was forced to put up a blind And be safe in my corset lacing Why did you not pinch a flower In a pellet of clay and fling it? Why did not I put a power Of thanks in a look, or sing it? I did look sharp as a lynx (And yet the memory rankles) When some models arrived, some minx Tripped up stairs, she and her ankles What ever happened to that kid who saw colours? Who spoke in a dream about her power creatures? There was a secret now pass it on There will surely be a time for you to pass it on No grudges, no life coaches No books on diets and doses You know you've changed Not for the better You know you've changed But not for the worse Don't forget people remember You got the letter Return to sender Each life unfulfilled you see It hangs still patchy and scrappy We have not sighed deep, laughed free Starved, feasted, despaired, been happy And nobody calls you a dunce And people suppose me clever This could have happened once And we missed it, lost forever