"Hello...
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What have we here?
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A young lady!
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To what do I owe this pleasant surprise, my pretty one?
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How may I be of service this dark and wintry night?
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Ah, I see. You wish me to look into the future... your future.
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After GCSEs, A-levels, university...
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After your first badly paid job in advertising...
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Okay, my pretty, just cross my palm with plastic,
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And I'll see what I can do...
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Wait!
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The fog is lifting!"
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I see oriental paper globes
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Hanging like decomposing cocoons
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While exotic candles overload
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The dusty air with their stale perfume
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And I see lentils, beans, seaweed and rice
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In jars on the windowsill
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And it ain't hardly enough to feed the mice
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Running behind the lines of allergy pills
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All these things will come to pass
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When heroes of the middle class
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Face up to their responsibilities
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I see an Indian fertility God
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He's got thirty seven limbs to spare
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And tasteless tie-dyed tablecloths
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That double up as evening wear
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And I see naked bodies twist and turn
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On the futon of dreams fulfilled
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But their three-year-old kid seems unconcerned
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He'd rather swallow all those allergy pills
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I see unspeakable vulgarity
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Institutionalised mediocrity
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Infinite tragedy
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Rise up little souls?join the doomed army
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Fight the good fight?wage the unwinnable war:
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Elegance against ignorance!
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Difference against indifference!
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Wit against shit!
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My words fly up to heaven, my thoughts remain below
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Words said without feeling never to heaven go...
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All these things will come to pass
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When heroes of the middle class
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Face up, repent, and pay the price
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For accidentally creating life
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An oversight for which they must atone
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And sacrifice their own
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-----------------
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Middle-Class Heroes
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The Divine Comedy |