Hand Me Ups - Scott Walker

Mend, amend

Bring and rub

Beat the band

I tried, I tried

Shrugged off the splintering white bone

Teeth shaken out with a stroke

Brain running down along spear

From the wound in the eye hole

Stones pounding in past the screens

Past the shields

I felt the nail driving into my foot

While I felt the nail driving into my hand

Rub a dub

God and bring

Beat the band

I tried, I tried

What?

When you can’t hear the bleating all night

Else he’s strumming the springs of his cot

When?

What you can’t hear is her tiny mouth

Squealing and shrieking with laughter

Dispensing with each little toe

Each little finger

Let them whirl away

Into the darkness

The pee pee soaked trousers

The torn muddied dress

No ankles at the gates at dusk

Ever caught the dawning

The audience is waiting, its audience is waiting

Its audience is waiting, its audience is waiting

No Fado live from last year’s winning country

Twelve bunnies in a hutch for nine new weeks

The audience is waiting, its audience is waiting

Its audience is waiting, its audience is waiting

And it will catch my toes

It will catch my fingers

The pee pee soaked trousers

The torn muddied dress

Forever and ever, forever and ever

Forever and ever, forever and ever

Mend, amend

Bring and rub

Beat the band

I tried, I tried

Shrugged off the splintering white bone

Teeth shaken out with a stroke

Brain running down along spear

From the wound in the eye hole

Stones pounding in past the screens

Past the shields

I felt the nail driving into my foot

While I felt the nail driving into my hand