Three Flights Up

(Album: Other Voices, Other Rooms - 1993)

We returned to that five-room flat
Now it was empty and this the last time
There were blinking pictures
Of how we'd sit and chat
Some of them are scattered
Others shattered in my mind

It was always three flights up
Cathedral bells kept time

In the winter, a-chattering cold
While the building shook like ragweed in the wind
Stories from the heat pipes
We were told
But now they only leave me
With a half-enchanted grin

It was always three flights up
Cathedral bells kept time

Bicycles squeezed down alley ways into view
And towels warmed on oven doors
To not freeze
Was the only thing to do

And I wonder if we kept to the fair warning
'Cause I can see it in the flowers
Dying on the windowsill
I know we must be out by tomorrow morning
But am I going 'gainst my will

It was always three flights up
Cathedral bells kept time

Bicycles squeezed down alley ways into view
And towels warmed on oven doors
To not freeze
Was the only thing to do

And I wonder if we kept to the fair warning
'Cause I can see it in the flowers
Dying on the windowsill
I know we must be out by tomorrow morning
But am I going 'gainst my will

It was always three flights up
Cathedral bells kept time