This room is exactly how I remember
having left nearly six years ago.
The sun lights the mantelpiece,
heats up the Bakelite cov
er on your little radio
It's the scene that I pictured
when I closed my eyes,
wished I'd be sent back to you
Where the lame deaf are blind,
short of body are of mind,
I'd fight insanity and strength
just to know I was coming home
Now we sit perched on edges of seats
that weren't by the tea
As we struggle for words
Parted after six months
But began aside an age
You're scared of how the other
might have changed
Like waking up and trying to
make sense of a dream
Like seeing your reflection
in glass through the steam
I can tell you the loud parts,
explosions and shell shock
Limbs that were tied
up with wickets on a case
I could master and leg
a thousand sweats from the brow
I've been heroes and cowards
and exactly how
I can tell you quite freely
of the things that
will never go away
Not of what I left behind
You don't know me that well
in the mad scheme of things
But you know that I'm hold
ing something back
Parted after six months,
back again, a silent age
You're scared of how the other
might have changed
When the biscuits have rotted
and the water has dried
You develop a taste for
what you never tried
Comfort, a blanket,
whatever the weave
Those nights were the coldest
I could have believed
I left here a soldier,
came back an adulterer
Something I'll take to the grave
Not from embarrassment,
neither from shame
Just confusion from a world
that changed so much
then changed back again.
Partied after six months,
back again, a sign of age.
You're scared of how the other
might have changed.
Left here a soldier,
came back an adulterer
Left here a soldier,
came back an adulterer
Left here a soldier,
came back an adulterer
Left here a soldier,
came back an adulterer
And if I kill a man now it's murder
After years of it being my calling
And if I love a man now it's a sin
After years of it being my comfort