Something Hard to Do

Every time we were born you died
Sweet cream in pants
And we sighed
A golden dream a Columbina –
Way too thin to hide.

Ah David, you came back so often
We never thought you would go.

If we were from space all of us
Then none of us were.
If we all had perfect teeth
Then dentists drilled us for nothing.
(Just wait here I’ll give you the eye.)
If we all bared them like that man
For a while
Well who could blame us?
The blouse just tore itself out of anguish.
We were boys and girls – and horses – next door
Over and over.

Stardust, you fell down so nicely
We never thought you would mean it.

Machine noise isn’t noise at all
It’s consequence. A ricochet.
Only people make noise.
Hearts beating.
You were never inhuman quite
The opposite you were more
And we will never see the like if
We live another age in the sun
And sell the moon
We will never see the light of day.
We will never see the light of day.
Never see the alien light
If we tried.
And we tried.

O Jonsey, you came out so late
We never had you for long.

If you were ours when we were muttering low
You were ours on the floor as well
If you were high when we were making out
You were deep inside us as well
In the mines when we have faces of soot
We’ll still be dancing
We’ll still be dancing
We’re still dancing
In the night.