Slender Threads - Peter Hammill

I saw your picture in the Evening Standard

You were wearing your battle dress

I really must confess

That I shed a silent smile for you--

It had really blown my mind

I wonder, are you still so kind?

Are you still so pure?

There are other rhymes around here somewhere

But I’m not too sure how they fit…

Jenny, penny for your thoughts

I wonder how you’re thinking now;

I hesitate to visualise;

Our worlds are much too different

That’s a sign of the times

Time was when I read your cards

And wrote the numbers in the dust;

I can’t remember what they were but, anyhow

I missed the cusp

So, so long, and so, goodbye

Do you think I’d recognise you by your hair or by your mind now?

We start out together

But the paths all divide;

When there are no more crossroads

I open my eyes

And find I’m walking on alone

Through the snowy cold…

I wonder if I’ll make it through the night?

I’m an author and an actor too;

You’re a model in the zoo…

I’m just thinking on which side of the bars

I’m looking through

If I prophesied an avalanche

Would you wait and call my bluff?

If I gave you just a little song

Would that be enough

To save your life

Or is the knife already turning in my hand?