My city don’t listen

People come here to go missing

People leave here but still miss it years later

Its children wear its kisses across them forever

When it screamed at me, I heard its music

When it drew its sword, I knelt

I spoke my first words in its mouth

And I took my first beats from its belt

Keep spinning

Ugly as commerce

Merciless profit, endless ambition

Base rate survival

Current so strong it feels tidal

Transactional life of addiction

Where do you fall in the grand shrinking

of fully formed person to slim definition?

Sitting in the waiting room all I can see, is a room full of fallen leaves dreaming

A roomful of fallen leaves, dreaming of the tree

A roomful of fallen leaves, dreaming of the tree

A roomful of fallen leaves, dreaming of the tree

A roomful of fallen leaves, dreaming of the tree

Little child, where did you go?

I know you want to know, is this city your home?

I watch it flow, the old river

Empty penthouses, but still the lone figure, slept out the whole winter

And died before Spring

Passers-by saw but felt sure they were not like him

Life by numbers

Looking for the punchline, only getting punches

Crunches in the morning, lunches in the boardroom

Numbness in the courtroom about to go under

What's yours, the money you hoard?

The applause or the dreams that you couldn't afford?

The photo in the frame?

Five months in, just showing all the marks on the wall from when they were still growing

Is it in what's left, is it in what's gone?

Trying to keep time but the time keeps on

Sitting in the cafe trying to work out what we want

A room full of drummers all looking for the one

A room full of drummers all looking for the one

A room full of drummers all looking for the one

A room full of drummers all looking for the one

A room full of drummers all looking for the one

Little girl, where did you go?

I know you want to know, is this city your home?

I got my own mouths to feed, is the cities decree

Why should I care about you?

You don’t care about me?

Fiction, faction, reaction, shock tactics

Must increase my presence, get active

Must get some flowers for the grave, it's band practice at eight

My turn to bring beers, I need to make a new claim

I've gone into arrears

Yeah, it feels like a lump but they're not taking new appointments till the backlog clears

Nine million terrified people

Living nine million beautiful lives

Let's make ourselves pretty and go out in the city

'Cause the body decays but the spirit survives

The main thing my city taught me

Is every stranger's holding up more than you could ever know

Pushing trolleys down the aisles, in pieces

A roomful of great lines looking for a show

A roomful of great lines looking for a show

A roomful of great lines looking for a show

A roomful of fallen leaves, dreaming of the tree

A roomful of fallen leaves, dreaming of the tree

A room full of drummers all looking for the one

A room full of drummers all looking for the one

A roomful of great lines looking for a show

A roomful of great lines looking for, looking for

Little boy, where did you go?

I know you want to know, is this city your home?