Replies

Really don’t mind if you sit this one out
My word’s but a whisper your deafness a SHOUT
I may make you feel but I can’t make you think
Your sperm’s in the gutter your love’s in the sink

So you ride yourselves over the fields
And you make all your animal deals
And your wise men don’t know how it feels
To be thick as a brick

And the sand-castle virtues are all swept away
In the tidal destruction the moral melee
The elastic retreat rings the close of play
As the last wave uncovers the newfangled way

But your new shoes are worn at the heels
And your suntan does rapidly peel
And your wise men don’t know how it feels
To be thick as a brick

And the love that I feel is so far away
I’m a bad dream that I just had today
And you shake your head
And say it’s a shame

See there! A son is born
And we pronounce him fit to fight
There are black-heads on his shoulders, and he pees himself in the night
We’ll make a man of him, put him to a trade
Teach him to play Monopoly and how to sing in the rain

The Poet and the Painter casting shadows on the water
As the sun plays on the infantry returning from the sea
The do-er and the thinker: no allowance for the other
As the failing light illuminates the mercenary’s creed
The home fire burning: the kettle almost boiling
But the master of the house is far away
The horses stamping, their warm breath clouding
In the sharp and frosty morning of the day
And the poet lifts his pen while the soldier sheaths his sword
And the youngest of the family is moving with authority
Building castles by the sea, he dares the tardy tide to wash them all aside

I’ve come down from the upper class
To mend your rotten ways
My father was a man-of-power
Whom everyone obeyed

So you ride yourselves over the fields
And you make all your animal deals
And your wise men don’t know how it feels
To be thick as a brick