Paul Shapera
The Wasteland
[Constance]
Angry adolescents with no parents left
Hang out all night sharpening their attitudes and smoking cigarettes
Laugh and howl and cry until the room spins
Hang on to Katy, all I know is tomorrow night, I’ll do it all again

In the wasteland
Where the ashes, ashes all fall down from worlds that could never stand
In the wasteland
Where rings of roses, broken boughs, just fall down and down and down

I raged with Katy through our last teen years
We’s too wild to notice, and too sad to care
I learned the wind blows, and the bough, it breaks
So I looked to have some laughs, some grass, and shots of what you got, I’ll take

At 2 am, a pack of wild kids laugh, swig bottles back
Stumbling and fumbling, I bid good night and slap their backs
I’d stray to the graveyard and pass out on my mother’s grave
'Til my aunt comes, puts a blanket round me, and just sits and stays

In the wasteland
Where the ashes, ashes all fall down from worlds that could never stand
In the wasteland
Where rings of roses, broken boughs, just fall down and down and down
Katy’s daddy threw her mum aside
Left her with nothing, and I’d loved her, she was always kind
And in her hour of need, no one would look around
Someone had to step up, but I was ground and drowned and so far down
I’s in the wasteland

My dear daddy, whiskey on his breath
I never knew him really, and one day, daddy left
But he’d say, “My girl, if only one thing now
I ever teach you, sweetheart, do not stay down."

Little girl, oh little girl, you don’t stay down
You kick and scream and scratch, you roar and thrash, but don’t stay down
The last breath you take, spit in their face, you lick your wounds another day
But get off the ground, go take 'em down, oh little girl, don’t stay down

Daddy dear, I could use your voice right now
Life’s smacked me round, and I’m so down, I just can’t get up from here
I put that angry girl behind me and I rose
From ash just like you asked, I could use her here now, though

I’m in the wasteland
Where ashes, ashes all fall down from worlds that could never stand
In the wasteland
Where rings of roses, broken boughs, all fall down and down
Little girl, oh little girl, you don’t stay down
You kick and scream and scratch, you roar and thrash, but don’t stay down
The last breath you take, spit in their face, you lick your wounds another day
But get off the ground, go take 'em down, oh little girl, don’t stay down