Idonia

When I saw you on the market, standing by the phone
With your hair as dark as this, how could you be alone
All the ghosts in love with you, they craned their sorry necks
Like a Viennese machine that's just discovered sex

When I saw you on the bridge, you had to look away
If I thought to follow you, I'd just get in the way
Reaching for eternity, reaching for a chair
Reaching for the woman who is never even there, boys
Never even there

When I saw your fingers folded round your albatross
Staring through the kitchen wall at everything you've lost
Losing comes so easily when you acquire the taste
Life is long and life is lost and life is such a waste, boys
Life is just a waste

See the wrinkles in my hand, I am the lizard's son
Waiting for the alchemist to touch me with the sun
When I saw your photograph, I knew we'd never meet
You were called Idonia, and I stayed in the street, boys
I stayed in the street

When I saw your eyes were closed, that was the best thing yet
Then you drove a caravan across this flimsy set
Crushed beneath your wheels still, my heart goes beating on
Beating for Idonia and everything she's done, boy
Everything she's done

When I saw your pharaoh coming, handsome gypsy lad
With his memory still wet from all the fun he had
Funny how your ceiling is somebody else's floor
Feeling for Idonia beside a market store, boys
Who won't be back no more