Wild Sign I Choose You

Some people I’ve met wear their age like a T-shirt

That lasts just one summer, then is tossed away

But the day I woke up 17, I knew instantly

I always would be 17

To me, 17 wasn’t some phase, or craze, or fad

I could wear for just 12 months

17 and I met and it was game over

That’s it. It’s you and me forever, kid…

We were just children in the morning

Playing grown-ups in the run-down flats

Sat up drinking, back to back

Cos we both had that, what do you call it?

Wild sign, I choose you

A handsome man once said

That all the best songs sound like longing

The best people run on it, too

Sends them aching, tearing, charging

Relax, I’ll spare you that cringe Kerouac quote

Of all the people

In all the places

There are those you never leave behind

Now I see them standing in a line

All 25, like a video game player select screen

25 years of relentless stupidity

And they can never take that away from us

Still think we could win wars together

Or just sit in bed

Smoking tabs, tarred and feathered

We were just children in the morning

As the dawn tore through the run-down flats

Sat up laughing, back to back

Cos we both had that, what do you call it?

Wild sign, I choose you

I want to live in a 1970s film

Crash my scooter off a cliff, so that finally I might come of age

I want to live in a 1980s film

Where gangs of homeless punks stand round bin fires in downtown LA

I want to live in a 1990s film

Where Diane and Renton meet up years later, on the run

I want to live in a 2020s film

Where we find heroes in each other

Cos we’re living in an age of none

Some people I’ve met wear their age like a T-shirt

That lasts just one summer, then is tossed away

But the day I woke up 17, I knew instantly

I always would be 17

To me, 17 wasn’t some phase, or craze, or fad

I could wear for just 12 months

17 and I met and it was game over

That’s it. It’s you and me forever, kid