Songs of Love and Distance

Songs of love and distance
Songs of lonely men
The one I want won't have me
I'm alone again
Songs of love and distance
Songs that women sing
He left me in the autumn
Will I see him in the spring

He was a married man at twenty
He thought he had it made
'Til they both tired of lying
In the bed they made
Each year increased the distance
Love seeped out between
Now he sings again at fifty
Songs he sang at seventeen

Songs of love and distance
Songs of lonely men
The one I want won't have me
I'm alone again
Songs of love and distance
Songs that women sing
He left me in the autumn
Will I see him in the spring

He happened hard and sudden
He never said he'd stay
Still she built her dreams
Around him anyway
There are holes that men fall into
Somewhere out there he went through
Now she holds her son for comfort
Knowing someday he'll leave too

Wish yourself across the ocean
Wish yourself a swallow's wings
Once you know the bonds are broken
What is there to do --
What is there to do but sing

Some may leave their country
Some may leave their hearts
Some may live for years together
Miles apart
We're fragments in the darkness
That a touch would make complete
But there might as well be oceans
Between two hands that do not meet

Wish yourself across the ocean
Wish yourself a swallow's wings
Once you know the bonds are broken
What is there to do --
What is there to do but sing

Singing songs of love and distance
Songs of lonely men
The one I want won't have me
I'm alone again
Songs of love and distance
Songs that women sing
He left me in the autumn
Will I see him in the spring