Jimmie Standing In The Rain

3rd Class ticket in his pocket
Punching out the holes underneath the sockets
Tweed coat turned up against the fog
Slow coaches rolling o'er the moor
Between the very memory and reproaches of war
Stale bread curling on a luncheon counter
Loose change doling out the right amount

Forgotten man of an indifferent nation
Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station
Somebody's calling you again
The sky is falling
Jimmies standing in the rain

Nobody wants to buy
The counterfeited prairie lullaby in a colliery town
The hip flask and fumbled scein of some stage door Josephine
Is all you'll get now
Eyes going in and out of focus
Wild and bitter from tuberculosis

Forgotten man of an indifferent nation
Standing on a platform at a Lancashire station
Somebody's calling you again
It's finally dawning
Jimmies standing in the rain

Her soft breath falls gentle on his neck
If he could choose the time to die
Then he would come and go like this
Underneath the painted sky
She woke up and called him Charlie by mistake
Then in shame began to cry
Tarnished silver bambuls of her friends
And then warm their hands around the brassier

Forgotten man of an indifferent nation
Standing on a platform at a Lancashire station
Somebody's calling you again
It's finally dawning
Jimmies standing in the rain

Brilliantine glistening
Your soft blended whistling
And your one wondering smile
Died down in the Hippodrome
Now walking of to jeers
The lonely sound of jingling spurs
The toodle-loos and oh my dears
Down at the Argyl
Fine vaudevillians that once were pioneers
No place for a half cut cowboy in polite society

Forgotten man of an indifferent nation
Waiting at a platform of a Lancashire station
Somebody's calling you again
It's finally dawning
Jimmies standing in the rain
Somebody's calling you again
It's finally dawning
Jimmies Standing In The Rain