The Concrete Jungle

There is a boy somewhere far away
And I know that no matter what he may say
He can’t escape me
Or erase me
From his grasp
And the asp
Bit me on the neck
Of the dream I thought to wreck
And I wonder when we both might die
Me by accident and you because you want to try
To see what’s beyond the pale
And I know what is not up for sale
But I have no cash to buy
Just the lashes I use to lie
About who I am
I look away and that’s part of the plan
Because I cannot let you see
That you have found your home in me
Because I know that someday we’ll be separated
Whether by force or because we’ve been education
To believe in the divide
And I abide
Somewhere between God and Mass
Between being a good girl and getting an A in class
And it’s something growing up in an Ireland in transition
Where people still use ammunition
To fire at you
While tolerance is preached to you in the pew
And it’s not okay to be gay
Then it is (or at least that’s what they say)
And I think of Stephen Gately
And the people who cannot find a home lately
As the rows erupt
And people on the news say that we’re fucked
But I see another scene
And it resides in all that we’ve been
In all these centuries
And the millennia before they told us who we could be
If we just believed
But the dragon falls and I’m relieved
Of the burden I bear
And I watch the fabric tear
On all that I thought I knew
This land always meant more to me than you
And I know you’re somewhere in the city
And I tried it for a while but it’s a pity
But I missed the hills of Kilglass
And the soul that pours through the grass
In the fields so green
The college was a concrete jungle of all I’d never been
And I found some kind of refuge in Darragh
But my heart is like a sparrow
That sits on a lonely branch and sings
For the boys that gives air to its wings
And the girls fight over what handbag is on brand
And I just stare and watch the sand
Slipping out of our hands
And wonder why they don’t understand
That they’re gripping something that is made of leather
And won’t make them feel any better
And I know I’ve got to get out of there
Then I find Tessa and Jennie and I know that they care
As we find some kind of peace in Nutgrove Avenue
And I drove my own car down the roads of you
As I stay up til five
Exuberant in the knowledge that you’re alive
Somewhere over there on the west coast
And I don’t mean to boast
But I think my man is the best
Because he’s deeper than all the rest
And I cannot contemplate
A series of x’s and y’s that do not equate
To you and I forever
So I sail this endeavour
To it’s logical conclusion
My confession and your confusion

Back To My Old Place

It wouldn’t be Dublin if I wasn’t late 
And somewhere under the covers is a man I’d like to date
And I think of him as I sit in this sojourn
Do I always have to mourn
It’s been ten years since we talked
A decade since I walked
My boots down the road
And everything slowed
Down, how do I get away
I cover my ears so I don’t hear what you say
Because you tell me that it’s over, over the hill
And I know that you would kill
Just to feel alive
But somewhere in the dive
You found the water you wanted
You tell me and I can’t say that I amn’t daunted
By the weight of your magnitudinous pain
And I just stand out in the rain
So I can feel it on my skin
But I never felt him
Move with the beat
Touched his face when we’re feet to feet
And somewhere in a daydream, diamond true
I think that I found you
For a reason
And for a season
That lasted three hours long
I was the ocean in which you drown

My Longing For Dublin

Is my longing for Dublin just coz you’re in it
I’m on the decks and it’s the way that you spin it
And there are buildings scraping the sky
And a civilization threatening to die
And I walked the yards into the green
I was ashamed of what I had been
In midnights and the dawn
I searched for something but it was gone
A pyramid scheme
Til the suffering woke the dream
Up from where it had been sleeping
Now it’s just the promise I’m keeping
As I pray to a God without belief
And the moment of relief
When all and sundry falls away
Some have called it the break of day
But it’s the dark
The dead of night in the park
Just staring at walls
Hoping for a free for all
But I got a cell and a bed to lay
Could I have had it any other way?

Alive Tonight

Getting drunk in the city
Darragh’s cute and Johnroy is witty
And Liosa and Isabelle are so pretty
Im too smart and that’s a pity
And I feel lost in the move of the club
Marian holds my hand as we walk round the pub
And it’s a sprawling mess but it’s divine
The days UCD was mine
And I did less learning than ever before
Don’t you see how the sun lit up the floor
As we did a skit about being D4
I’d never been that sassy before
But it only made us closer as a group
And I was just sitting on the stoop
When he laughed and told a joke
And he smiles so I don’t have to cope
With this damn state of mind that’s dragging me under
He is the clouds
But I am the thunder
And I just rumble
Into the town that we own
He’s older than me
But you never would’ve known
As he bought me a drink
That said don’t think
Too much about those things
He makes a face and my heart sings
He throws his arm casually round my shoulder
And I feel I’ve just dropped the boulder
That I’ve been rolling up this hill
He lets me see his heart at will
It’s lockdown and I’m thinking of him
Wondering if he kept that grin
And nothing burns like gasoline
You’re the fire in my dream
And I never told you what you wanted me to
Could you see that I love you?
And he probably has a furnace to build
He’s the red in my heart and it cannot be filled
With the memory of what we were
Can I present tense the moment I’m her
As we’re running down aisles and chasing down stars
And Rob, you know, he plays guitars
And I just wish I could be involved
Coz this damn problem’s never solved
But I wouldn’t change it, because we met
I hold a space in my soul for you yet