Pete Atkin sings
Rain-Wheels

by Clive James and Pete Atkin,
from Secret Drinker

[Much more at www.peteatkin.com]
LYRIC:
The storm has dumped a mirror in the street
A Jaguar goes by like the fastest MTB in all the fleet
The girl at the wheel is food for heroes
Her hubs full of haloes are strobing like a finger dialling zeroes

          She has to get home to the Vale of Health
          She has to get out of Notting Hill

Would she care for us cripples if she could?
Does her throbbing four-point-two shyly beat for me and you
          beneath the hood?
The Jag is shedding tears along the airflow
And its plum-coloured lustre is sobbing like the deep end
          of the rainbow

          She has to get home to the Vale of Health
          She has to get out of Notting Hill
          And back to her nest in amongst the wealth

Why pretend our fortunes touch her heart?
The supermarket windows have shivered in the street
          and come apart
The girl in the E-type cares for no-one
Her Firestones go trailing spray through trembling reflections
          of the neon

          She has to get home to the Vale of Health
          She has to get out of Notting Hill
          And back to her nest in amongst the wealth
          Where the rain falls warm and the winds don't chill

Her Firestones go trailing spray
They spin, they grip, they whip away
Through trembling reflections of the lights of intersections
And the brightly flourished crayon of the neon ...