A Cloud

Outside my window
There’s a cloud
Floating overhead
Instead of rain, it dropped a rope ladder down
That dangled just too high to reach

It floated merrily, merrily, merrily across the ocean
Over the water
The rungs of the ladder
Skipping off the highest waves
Getting caught on a mountain, one day it came down in the cold
In a blaze of colour and gold

And I cried out ‘If I was a just a little bit taller,
Think of all the places I could soar’
But to live amongst these lights so long
Is what I moved to the city for

Outside my window
There’s a guy
Going off his head
At all hours of the day and of the night
He twists and writhes and almost falls into the street

Crying terribly, terribly, terribly out to no-one
A broken apostle
Said, ‘The world of humans is awful
There has never been a better time -
you believe in a lie’

But on summer nights when I write my songs
And the good old boys listen to reggaeton
In the car park outside the Travelodge
Outside my window

I see myself floating over to them
To offer all the guys a smoke
To be a part of the midnight salon
Is why I strayed away from home so long

Outside my window
There is a cloud coming tonight
Rolling in and blocking out the light
Growing and blowing in year after year

Outside my window
What’s this I see?
That little cloud is coming back
With an olive branch between its teeth
It says, ‘Next time come with me’

And just at that moment, you came home
And that cloud scurried off - they scare easy you know
And for a second there I was all alone, by my window

And I thought to myself if I just had I had a little bit longer
Think of all the things I could know
But to hear your voice call across the hall
That’s what I live in the city for