From the point he gazed from the choice was made, but 'walk the cave or the shore?'
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The oily cave seemed to breathe on him through gravestone jaws
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His little hand grasped in anguish as he weighed up his coin
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Somewhere a blue-eyed girl in the world is just waiting for a boy
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Footprints trailed as if trod by slaves up to the grey cave floor
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But not one graze from anything ever escaping this fort
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So with coin on hand his joy came back when ordered to take the shore
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'Why on earth', as he wandered the warmth, 'am I obeying this coin?'
|
|
Turn your life on the flip of this coin
|
Turn upside a choice you'd normally avoid
|
And promise me you'll follow what it says
|
Whatever it says
|
|
Again, walk within the trusted beach or swim the swell of the sea?
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And again the scarier alternative looked like certain death to he
|
He'd never learnt to skill of swimming - it never occurred to be very easy
|
And again he winced as he flipped the coin and it twirled to his feet
|
'How is this sane?' he blamed the coin now aiming for the waves
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As he hesitated at the swirl of water as it raged and rained
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Blue-eyed girls were waiting and he was drowning in the spray
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Blue-eyed girls he should have been acquainted with but for shouting and flailing
|
|
Turn your life on the flip of this coin
|
Turn upside a choice you'd normally avoid
|
And promise me you'll follow what it says
|
Whatever it says
|
|
He finally slugs it back to land feeling chewed-up and foolish
|
Empties his pockets on the sand spewing a pool each
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Staggers back to his dad who's too cool to be
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So he says 'why did you have me follow this stupid rule, please?'
|
To be honest little fellow I'll tell you
|
I was just as afraid as you
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But you said you wanted to get with people and places ever new
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And I got a bit scared of the fate of my baby son's future
|
So I invented a reason to see if you could ever make do
|
As soon as you appeared behind that rock looking angry at me
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I soon realised what a hell of a man you've ended up being
|
I knew you'd worked out how to swim, which I hadn't had in me
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And I stand as a companion of you, proudest a man has ever been
|
|
Turn your life on the flip of this coin
|
Turn upside a choice you'd normally avoid
|
And promise me you'll follow what it says
|
Whatever it says
|
|
-----------------
|
On The Flip Of A Coin
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The Streets |