The Graveyard of the Outcast Dead

They buried my body on Christmas

In the ground by the South River bank

Worked to my death for my very last breath

I'd the Winchester bishops to thank

Now the church held the keys to the brothel

Lit the window with a burning red light

While I teased the funds from the pockets of johns

The bishop got rich in the night

But I didn't fall apart

Through my years in the dark

For my lover I guarded

My pure, pure heart

And he meets me in the graveyard

The graveyard where they made my bed

Plants a white flower under cold stars

On the grave of the forgotten dead

Now the bishops snuck off to fresh pastures

While my grave was grown over with weeds

No burial plots, just some forget-me-nots

For the women they branded unclean

The wasteland was claimed by the city

They covered it with tenement slums

For where we'd been left had never been blessed

And they dug down and built on our bones

But every December

With frost on his fingers

My lover returns

For he still remembers

To meet me in the graveyard

The graveyard where they made my bed

Plants a white flower under cold stars

On the grave of the forgotten dead

The sun goes down and the last folk leave

It's London town on Christmas Eve

My lover still wanders bereft and bereaved

For he can't find the woman that he promised he'd meet

The sun comes up on the cold, cold ground

It's Christmas morning in London town

He lays on my grave and he cradles his head

As he hears the church bells he knows that I'm dead

So London don't mourn for your lovers

Raise a glass for us glorious dead

For beneath Southwark streets we outlasted the priests

And the city's raised up on our beds

Though we're gone, London do not forget

To meet us on Christmas

In the graveyard where they made our bed

Plant a white flower for the outcasts

On the graves of the forgotten dead

Oh, to meet us on Christmas

In the graveyard where they made our bed

Plant a white flower for the outcasts

On the graves of the forgotten dead

In the graveyard of the outcast dead