Wickerman

Just behind the station, before you reach the traffic island, a river runs through' a concrete channel I took you there once; I think it was after the Leadmill The water was dirty And it smelt of industrialisation Little mesters coughing their lungs up And globules the colour of tomato ketchup But it flows. Yeah, it flows Underneath the city through' dirty brickwork conduits Connecting white witches on the Moor with pre-raphaelites down in Broomhall Beneath the old Trebor factory that burnt down in the early seventies Leaving an antiquated sweet-shop smell And caverns of nougat and caramel Nougat Yeah, nougat and caramel And the river flows on Yeah, the river flows on beneath pudgy fifteen-year olds addicted to coffee whitener I went there again for old time's sake Hoping to find the child's toy horse ride that played such a ridiculously tragic tune It was still there - but none of the kids seemed interested in riding on it And the cafe was still there too The same press-in plastic letters on the price list and scuffed formica-top tables I sat as close as possible to the seat where I'd met you that autumn afternoon And then, after what seemed like hours of thinking about it I finally took your face in my hands and I kissed you for the first time And a feeling like electricity flowed through' my whole body And all the time, in the background, the sound of that ridiculously heartbreaking child's ride outside At the other end of town the river flows underneath an old railway viaduct I went there with you once - except you were somebody else - And we gazed down at the sludgy brown surface of the water together Then a passer-by told us that it used to be a local custom to jump off the viaduct into the river When coming home from the pub on a Saturday night But that this custom had died out when someone jumped and landed too near to the riverbank and had sunk in the mud there and drowned before anyone could reach them I don't know if he'd just made the whole story up, but there's no way you'd get me to jump off that bridge No chance. Never in a million years Yeah, a river flows underneath this city I'd like to go there with you now my pretty "amp; follow it on for miles "amp; miles, below other people's ordinary lives Occasionally catching a glimpse of the moon, through' man-hole covers along the route Yeah, it's dark sometimes but if you hold my hand, I think I know the way Oh, this is as far as we got last time But if we go just another mile we will surface surrounded by grass "amp; trees "amp; the fly-over that takes the cars to cities Buds that explode at the slightest touch, nettles that sting - but not too much I've never been past this point, what lies ahead I really could not say I used to live just by the river, in a dis-used factory just off the Wicker The river flowed by day after day "One day" I thought, "One day I will follow it" but that day never came I moved away "amp; lost track but tonight I am thinking about making my way back I may find you there "amp; float on wherever the river may take me Wherever the river may take me Wherever the river may take us Wherever it wants us to go Wherever it wants us to go