Misplaced Childhood
Album - 17 giugno 1985 - Debaser id 20209

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono
Wearing bracelets of smoke, naked of understanding
Nicotine smears, long, long dried tears, invisible tears
Safe in my own words, learning from my own words
Cruel joke, cruel joke
Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono
A morning mare rides, in the starless shutters of my eyes
The spirit of a misplaced childhood is rising to speak his mind
To this orphan of heartbreak, disillusioned and scarred
A refugee, refugee.

Do you remember chalk hearts melting on a playground wall
Do you remember dawn escapes from moonwashed college halls
Do you remember the cherry blossom in the market square
Do you remember I thought it was confetti in our hair
By the way didn't I break your heart
Please excuse me I never meant to break your heart
So sorry I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine

Kayleigh is it too late to say I'm sorry?
And Kayleigh could we get it together again
I just can't go on pretending that it came to a natural end
Kayleigh oh I never thought I'd miss you
And Kayleigh I thought that we'd always be friends
We said our love would last forever
So how did it come to this bitter end

Do you remember barefoot on the lawn with shooting stars
Do you remember the loving on the floor in Belsize Park
Do you remember dancing in stilettoes in the snow
Do you remember you never understood I had to go
By the way didn't I break your heart
Please excuse me I never meant to break your heart
So sorry I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine

Kayleigh, I just want to say I'm sorry
But Kayleigh I'm too scared to pick up the phone
To hear you've found another lover to patch up our broken home
Kayleigh I'm still trying to write that love song
Kayleigh it's more important to me, now you're gone
Maybe it will prove that we were right
Or it'll prove that I was wrong

I was walking in the park
Dreaming of a spark,
When I heard the sprinklers whisper, shimmer
In the haze of summer lawns,
Then I heard the children singing,
They were running through the rainbows.
They were singing a song for you.
Well it seemed to be a song for you,
The one I wanted to write for you, for you, you.

Lavenders blue, dilly dilly, lavenders green,
When I am King, dilly dilly, you will be Queen.
A penny for your thoughts my dear,
A penny for your thoughts my dear,
I.O.U. for your love,
I.O.U. for your love.

Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue,
When you love me, dilly dilly, I will love you.
A penny for your thoughts my dear,
A penny for your thoughts my dear,
I.O.U. for your love,
I.O.U. for your love.

When the taxis gather in mock Solemnity
Funeral hearses court the death of virginity
Was it paradise lost or paradise found?
Did we gain respect or were we holding ground?
You had found true love, or so you believed
And the wideboys tattooed your hearts upon their sleeves
So when you think it's time to go
When you think it's time to go
Don't be surprised, the heroes never show

And the patter merchants selling false impressions
Tipping eyes at the waitress with American expressions
Tie angels to the bar with sweet Martini's and their charms
They're lying on every word and every arm
They're turning down their noses to the best lines
And the cheap wines

And the wideboys
They wear their lovebites for their crimes

A love song with no validity
Pretend you never meant that much to me
Numb, a Valium child, bored by meaningless collisions
A lonely stretch of headlight, diamonds trapped in black ice
A mirror cracked among the white lines
I just wanted you to be the first one
I just wanted you to be the first one
Ashes are burning, burning
Ashes are burning, burning

A lifestyle with no simplicities
But I'm not asking for your sympathy
Talk, we never could talk, distanced by all that was between us
A lord of the backstage, a creature of language
I'm so far out and I'm too far in

I just wanted you to be the first one
I just wanted you to be the first one
Bridges are burning, burning
Bridges are burning, burning

And it was morning
And I found myself mourning,
For a childhood that I thought had disappeared
I looked out the window
And I saw a magpie in the rainbow, the rain had gone
I'm not alone, I turned to the mirror
I saw you, the child, that once loved
The child before they broke his heart
Our heart, the heart that I believed was lost

Hey you, surprised? More than surprised
To find the answers to the questions
Were always in your own eyes

Do you realise that you give it on back to her?
But that would only be retraced in all the problems that you ever knew
So untrue
For she's got to carry on with her life
And you've got to carry on with yours

So I see it's me, I can do anything
And I'm still the child
'Cos the only thing misplaced was direction
And I found direction
There is no childhood's end
You are my childhood friend, lead me on

Hey you, you've survived. Now you've arrived
To be reborn in the shadow of the magpie

Now you realise, that you've got to get out of here
You've found the leading light of destiny, burning in the ashes of your memory
You want to change the world
You'd resigned yourself to die a broken rebel
But that was looking backward
Now you've found the light

You, the child that once loved
The child before they broke his heart
Our heart, the heart that I believed was lost

So it's me I see, I can do anything.
I'm still the child
'Cos the only thing misplaced was direction
And I found direction
There is no childhood's end
I am your childhood friend, lead me on

When I hit the streets back in '81
Found a heart in the gutter and a poet's crown
I felt barbed wire kisses and icicle tears
Where have I been for all these years?
I saw political intrigue, political lies
Gonna wipe those smiles of self-satisfaction from their eyes

I will wear your white feather
I will carry your white flag
I will swear I have no nation
But I'm proud to own my heart
I will wear your white feather
I will carry your white flag
I will swear I have no nation
But I'm proud to own my heart
My heart, this is my heart

We don't need no uniforms, we have no disguise
Divided we stand, together we'll rise

We will wear your white feather
We will carry your white flag
We will swear we have no nations
But we're proud to own our hearts
We will wear your white feather
We will carry your white flag
We will swear we have no nations
But we're proud to own our hearts
These are our hearts
These are our hearts
You can't take away our hearts
You can't steal our hearts away
I can't walk away
No more