04: NOBODY  ANSWERS


Every night after work when I wander back home
Lie on the sofa watching the lights
A bottle of whiskey a half filled glass
Stare out the window brace for a fight
Will I hear her sobbing in the space above?
The sound of the struggle freezes my blood
Then I feel through the floor dark vibrations
Climb up the old steps and tap on the door

Nobody answers no one’s there
Nobody’s living at the top of the stairs

In the hall when we pass by, the light of the day
I replay the words, I never could say
She’s barely concealed with her upturned coat
The black and blue circles ringing her throat       
Changing my mind I turn back on my heels
Stretching a hand in the hope she can feel
But the lines of her face show no reaction
Fading away she just drifts through the door

Nobody answers no one’s there
Nobody’s living at the top of the stairs
Whenever I reach out she disappears
Nobody answers a ghost cannot hear

Night after night I spend watching the cars
In this hole underground boxed in alone
Home I keep drinking ’til the pictures stop
Let me lie sleeping endings unknown
Like the film on a window that filters the light
Her stark vision haunts all the days of my life

Nobody answers……

I might have saved her if I’d only dared
A touch on her shoulder a touch anywhere
She could have seen how the curtain would fall
Now nobody answers there’s no one
No one at all

A bottle of whiskey and an empty glass………