Raspberry Ripple (Live at Wapping Wall, London 1986)

Bleeding raspberry, handicapped, disabled
Raspberry ripple, physical, mental, helpless, useless cripple
Often dressed in greys, blacks, brown,
don't want to be noticed, merge into background
The thoughts, differences unable to forget
made more acute when they are always met with
goggle-eyed stares, cruel easy laughter
avoiding, turning away from those who have to face it every day
Feel better, pretty, closer to perfection with your ugly beauty
Only see the defects, just the disability
then labelled rejects, don't know their nobility

Solution? Set apart, institutionalised by easy-way hearts
hidden away at home, out of sight, out of mind
when in the long run, it's only fair and kind
Don't want young children to get a nasty fright,
Teach them the darkness when there could be light
never ever see beyond with those blind eyes
that are looking in and told those same old lies.

Things are looking up in this day and age
helped by a charity fund
Nothing much changes, still get shunned, shut up, locked away
in harsh brick, shiny tiles, long lonely corridors, full of lost screams
In all of these places, at any approaching sound
in the rooms and wards, hopeful faces turn 'round
Seeking a little attention, a short moment of fun
and perhaps some affection.