Paint the town

A pint of beer, a glass of wine,
Her head on my shoulder, her arm through mine,
Music filters from unseen sources,
Sewage runs along the water courses.

Moonlight reflects in broken windows
As lounge suits come laughing from tragedy shows,
Drivers move up the fare and play on their mood,
While young men in rags scrounge for their food.

In the morning a rain will come down
To wash away memories of a night on the town,
Yet one woman's eyes won't see another day,
She clings to a ripped skirt as her life drips away.

Two men who would take a hundred lives
Run from an alley with blood on their knives,
Clasping hands, lovers haven't noticed the fall
And walk past obscenties on a monument wall.

Through roads of litter and bottles of meths,
Read in the paper of the endless deaths,
Three stabbed, two shot, a teenage boy hung,
Some linger in the memory, some are unsung.

Ambulance sirens are carried on the air,
Twenty could have died and no-one would care,
Blood-spattered faces are carried from bars
And cinema-goers can't return to their cars -
She clings to my arm as I lead her away
From the place that's so different in the light of the day.

A glass of beer, a pint of wine,
Drink them down till the end of time,
Hope in the end things will turn out fine,
Leave the streets and the town sublime.