| You Were Hardly Ever Here
Lyric by Clive James, music by Pete Atkin
A string of separate nights and some far-apart days
And a weekend or two was the sum of me and you
Before we went our separate ways;
And the one who went was you, unannounced,
Leaving behind you the odd knick-knack —
For example that pipe-cleaning thing in gold
And some kind of tobacco in a four-ounce pack
Like the con-man who gives you his magazine to hold
To convince you he's coming back;
Well, things were never dull and perhaps I was blessed
That your calls were short and you didn't need a rest
From the three or four dishes that I cook best
But, damn it all,
You'd visit me, but never come to stay:
The time to leave was never far enough away
For me to feel it wasn't near.
You were hardly ever here.
No settled plans, the basis day to day;
The time to leave was never far enough away
To take the edge from our affair:
You were hardly ever there,
And when you were
Every time was like the first time —
Even the time that I didn't know then
Was the last time.
But then again, it was too much in a way:
The time to leave was never far enough away
For me to feel it wasn't near.
It was a live-in-fear affair:
You were hardly ever here,
You were hardly ever there.
|
|
|
|
|  |
