Harbour Lights

Seven Sisters, you showed me how to smile
Seven Sisters, gave me love and hurt in equal size
I’m afraid that I’ve strayed and there’s no turning back
I long for autumn, just to hide within a coat
I long for winter, just to have the streets all to myself
A hidden retreat or a stolen weekend
I’ll cling with weathered fingertips
Soft-focused melodies and
Swap decades of hectic streets for
A weekend’s faded memories
Where west coast harbour lights keep on calling me back
The lifeboats bob on the turning tide
The carousel spins silently in black and white
And those east coast 45s in their polythene sleeves
The needle drops and I’m feeling seasick
Hypnotised by the hiss and clicks
And the tidal streams
I’m sleepwalking back to the sea
Well I know, the winter takes its toll on you
Those hectic scenes, those unforgiving streets
Drive-by soundbites, in fifteen words or less
Chequebook politics, always in lower case
Just dodge the bullets and try to think of somewhere else
Seven Sisters, I love you but that’s it Swing Out Sister, take me anywhere just play the hits
I’m turning imperfect cartwheels on cold cobbled streets
I’ll cling with weathered fingertips
Soft-focused melodies and
Swap decades of hectic streets for
A weekend’s faded memories
Where west coast harbour lights keep on calling me back
Where the lifeboats bob on the turning tide
The carousel spins silently in black and white
And those east coast 45s in their polythene sleeves
The needle drops and I’m feeling seasick
Hypnotised by the hiss and clicks
And the tidal streams
I’m sleepwalking back to the sea
Well I know, the winter takes its toll on you
Those hectic scenes, those unforgiving streets
And I know, the temptation just to trade it in Those hectic scenes, for a weekend’s faded memories
Where west coast harbour lights keep on calling me back
Where the lifeboats bob on the turning tide
The carousel spins silently in black and white
And those east coast 45s in their polythene sleeves
The needle drops and I’m feeling seasick
Hypnotised by the hiss and clicks
And the tidal streams
I’m sleepwalking back to the sea