The Great Escape

Well she came from good people, but no-one was with her,
and she moved to our estate to get her act together,
and if our lives are a novel, hers was torn at the edges,
sitting crying in the kitchen smoking Benson & Hedges.
They were painting up the kerb stones for the 12th of July.
My mother said I couldn’t join in, but she wouldn’t say why.

She wore this fur coat that always smelled kind of funny,
and every time she came around she would always give me money
And at Christmas, she’d get blue, and let the film unwind
Sad tears and bad years and Blue Nun wine
We called her my aunt, but we never were related,
she gave me a Jim Reeves record, I don’t think I ever played it

(welcome to my world…)
Did we still win the war?
I was sleeping on the sofa when they called the final score.
And I’ll miss ‘The Great Escape’ for this.
Somebody blow me a goodbye kiss.

She’d lost her husband Willie to a heart attack
and she was told she’d go the same way if she didn’t cut back
Everything in the house was made of plastic and nylon,
when you looked out her back window
there was a fence and then a pylon
Sometimes the house was spotless, other times it fell apart –
tobacco-stained ceilings and the Sacred Heart

(Hail Mary Full of Grace…)
Did we still win the war?
I was sleeping on the sofa when they called the final score.
And I’ll miss ‘The Great Escape’ for this.
Somebody blow me a goodbye kiss.

I was just a little kid but I knew it couldn’t go on,
I came home from school one afternoon, and she was already gone.
The neighbours came running and they kicked down the door,
and they found her lying gasping on the kitchen floor.
When your heart’s that big and broken, it can’t always be trusted.
My father ran for help, but the phone box was busted.

(is anybody there…?)
Did we still win the war?
I was sleeping on the sofa when they called the final score.
And I’ll miss ‘The Great Escape’ for this.
Somebody blow me a goodbye kiss.