Radio Shoes


Me and my friend and his girlfriend are swimming

in Telephone Lake where willows are ringing.

Out of the water a periscope snake says

'Go to the place where the wireless valves break'.

Me and my friend and his girlfriend

are driving through silence and sounds.

My sister is waving.

She found a map full of stations and beams

where rivers were drawn like electron streams.

My friend and his girl hear the Doppler Effect.

They both disappear in the Infinite Shoeblack.

Me and my sister drive home with the blues


Now we can look for the Radio Shoes,

how we can look for the Radio Shoes

  (Little red roses fall from heaven)


Me and my friend and his girlfriend are skating

on Telephone Lake. My sister is waiting

at home near the wireless but there is no sound.

The periscope snake must have been drowned.

We melt through the ice and never come back,

we all disappear in the Infinite Shoeblack.

Through falling snow we walk home with the blues.


Now we can look for the Radio Shoes,

how we can look for the Radio Shoes



Ice Princess


When you are a small trombone

you think about the world outside your home.

And the burning of the trumpet sounds

like white smoke and elephants fire.

My ice princess dances

on the ground when she walks.

Ooh my ice princes once

was made of wood and water.


M m m m


When you're on the riverside

where the air is cool and the moon is bright,

carving trees with a pocket-knife.

When we're dead, they're still alive.

I'm sitting in a car driving downtown,

I'm watching the lights go up and down.

Turning left to the old brown school,

wipe out the blackboard-drawing, fool.


Why is my heart so cold.

You say I'll never be the same.

I will wait 20 years, 20 years, 20 years.


When you are a small trombone

all the world is inside your home.

And the ice princess dances

on the ground when she walks.


  Why is my heart so cold.



Boy in a Tree


When she drops in town a little handkerchief

He picks it up for her

Although he's not a prince of charm

Now she stands upon his shoulders

And looks across the garden

And sees the oak behind the farm


  I'm up here in the waving tree

  I feel my mother looks at me

  She is living near to the bone


There were times when she was beautiful

She was dancing with my uncles

Her hair was darker then this house

Although it's true that she was proud of him

Standing on his shoulders

She saw the lights of other towns


On Friday night she took the train

Sunday she is back again

Bringing home stories near the bone


Boy in a tree   

he is looking round and round and round


The mirror shows another day

She is 40 years or older

Her hair will fade from black to grey

She drives and drives through the night

A parrot on her shoulder

Until the darkness goes away


  She is standing near the waving tree

  Looking up she talks to me

  All I hear is the wind in the leaves


Boy in a tree  

he is looking round and round and round



There from Here


I've forgotten all the presents

And the papers fly in streets

From nowhere to the 7-11 doors

Through the turnstile of the supermarket

I'm lifted by a trunk in tin-foil

That's butting me back on my feet


Nothing can be like this wind - It blows so sweet

The elephant FRITZ burns his feet

And then I wake up to find out

All the things that please me are forgotten

How do I get there from here


Nothing like this burning wind

It takes your soul - it flies away

And I hope you'll never fing out

It' about time

That me and the elephant are leaving

But how do we get there from here


How do I get there from here



Sugar River


On a sugar river

Where the water is sweet

Where the pebble is

A mountain

And the crab nibbles

Your feet

Jelly-fish big jelly-fish

She's a man-of-war

Jelly-fish big jelly-fish

He's a woman far

Away

On a sugar river

We are sitting in a boat

Made of hollow trees

That float

Till the sugar is salt

Wehn I touch her knee

She smiles at mee

And pulls up

The eyebrow

My elbows will stay white

This summer

As lond as I'm a tadpole

And the green mouth sings


  'SUGAR & WATER'


Hibernation in the floating green weeds.


S is a bend in the river

U is a turn going back (home)

G is a snake in the water

A is a bridge

where we R



Around the Fish


Dive on a Sunday

In a lake

Around the fish

We are swimming



Fountain man


I went back to the Netherlands,

I saw the Fountain Man.

In his hands ice was

water, water a cloud.

This is how the sea is kept out.

Why some bodies sink

and why others float (said the Fountain Man).

He not only changed his shape,

he did not remain within any volume.

While standing before my eyes he was a

cloud  water ice.

Why some bodies sink, why others float.

He's the man who

thought he was a fountain.


   Fountain Man  F F F F F  Fountain Man


When we walked through Fountain Land

I saw the Birdhouse once again.

The Mouth Orange said:

'Ah, burn me now, I want to be your Desert Lamp.'

Why some bodies sink, why others float.

He's the man who thought he was a

fountain.


   Fountain Man  Fountain Man  F F F F F  Fountain Man



Apple Orchard


L. a trick-a-sunlight

Falls down like the rain

Enters through the cornea

Leaves inverted image in my brain

Overhanging clouds

Fly into my room

Percolate to alcohol

And fall down with a boom

And I will laugh


L.a trick-a-sunlight

You'll never know my name

You can see this bicycle

Turning in the rain

And I will fall


I lay down

Do I hear my name

The apple is falling down

Lay ma down

The apple orchard

Do I hear my name

The apple is falling down


L.a trick-a-sunlight

Came into my room

Tiptoed through the silent night

and fell down with a boom

And I was laughing


  Apple orchard

  Lay me down

  When it's late

  At night

  Lay me down

  And cry



Long Forgotten Story


It's the year 2040

I survived the holy war

Through the big world I am walking

Since the downfall of the car

I am almost 87

I am almost in my grave

And I don't believe in heaven any more

I come back to the hotel

Where 50 years ago

A woman waited for her lover

But he did not show up

'This is not a church', she said

'But I feel like praying in this hall

It's the first time in my life

He did not call'


  It's a long forgotten story

  It's a long forgotten day


When we sailed the 'Hope and Glory'

Till the town was far away


  It's a long forgotten story

  It's a long forgotten day


From the room the view

Is still the same

It's the Lykabettos hill

Where we played in 1989

When the time was standing still

I was almost 38

When I bought a dark red vase

Do I hear somebody knocking

On the glass



Giant Normal Dwarf


  What a beautiful dress

  You're wearing tonight

  What a beautiful shoes

  You have on your feet


Do you remember it's

A long time ago

When the summer was green

The winter was snow

Cherry-eye

Window panes

Wonder why it always rains

Loot at me I'm getting smaller

Vice versa you're growing taller

You're an oak tree I'm a flower


You are a GIANT

I am a normal d w a r f


Through the coal mines

Of my brain I went

From the chambers of my heart

I sent you a tanker

Filled with sweet perfume

- to my one-eyed cyclop -

I will never stick a pole in your eye

Like the hero of my favourite book

It's been on a shelf

But it's much too high


You are a GIANT

I am a normal d w a r f


Don't you see yo're going taller

Vice versa I'm getting smaller

I'm a pebble you're a mountain


You are a GIANT

I am a normal d w a r f


When I dance with you

I can hold your knees

I will polish your shoes

Stay with me

All winter long

And we melt like snow

In the last line of this song



Moon Moon


My father was a chimney weeper

'Don't look down', he said

The 4 winds that blow in this street

Still whisper his name


Men are long and black you see

They are sad and smoke

Like the chimneys in the factory

And they always broke


  Moon Moon Moon Moon


The elevator boy said: 'Listen,

Sometimes when I'm stuck

Between the floors of this house

I can hear them sing'


  Moon Moon Moon Moon

  Moon Moon Moon Moon


Sometimes she cries

When there's a wedding in town

She's like a willow in the wind

She weeps

It's 2 years

It's so long ago


Now you're back home in the

New found land

And the path to the house is cool

Pick up the suitcase of dreams

Now your wits are wool


  Moon Moon Moon Moon

  Moon Moon Moon Moon



The Night Owl


We walk where the road is curling up

Like smoke above our heads

Here we stand with our backs

Against the wall of the house

Where the man once wrote Suzanne


With my friend from Finland

I went down

From Athens in the night

In a boat 2 pilgrims on a bench

To the island where the donkey

Is never shot


  It breaks my heart

  The night-owl sings

  It breaks my heart

  Oohooo my heart


In the room the bird is on a wire

When we look outside

It's gone

It flies through the trees

With pomegranates

And it falls down

Like the moon

Into the sea


  It breaks my heart

  The night-owl sings

  It breaks my heart

  Oohooo my heart


(where we go)



House of the Sleeping Beauties


  When the rain falls on the asphalt pavement

  It floats in gutters of the street

  Down the drainpipes underneath this house

  We are as quiet as a mouse


After the broken arm things went slow

Since that day I took a little took a little took a little time

I went down into a bottomless hole

Took a shovel and dug a little dug a little dug a little mine

We are the creatures of the underworld

Beneath the surface of houses and streets clay and concrete

Shoulder to shoulder we hide in this hole

Light a candle we need a little need a little need a little time

House of the sleeping beauties


  When the thunder shakes the gutta-percha

  The rain falls through the heaven hole

  In the drainpipes underneath this house

  We are as quiet as a mouse


Through the kerbstones and concrete

We take a breath we need a little need a little need a little air

Between cables and copper-wire

The submarine goes upp a little up a little up a little higher

House of the sleeping beauties

I got out through an open doow

If there's time I need a little need a little need a little more



The Infinite Shoeblack


This is the place where they built the machine

They wipe out the drawings and lock up the dream    the hope

This is the town where they wait for the wars

They lock up the houses and burn all the cars       the smoke

Here on this map we are close to the place

The end of our journey 4 hours and days             the drive

This is the place where we stop with the car

My sister she whispers 'I know where we are'        the lake

This is the house. We've been here before

The laboratory. The long corridor                   the snake


  There is a key under a stone

  Look through the windows

  Nobody's home

  Turn the key


  In a bel-glass on a table

  The shoes are covered with dust

  They whisper with their strings

  'Shine us for mirror we mist'


Till we all fall through             THE INFINITE SHOEBLACK


This is the place where they built the machine

They wipe out the drawings and lock up the dream    the hope

This is the house. We've been here before

The laboratory. The long corridor                   the rope

Me and my sister drive home with the blues

We lifted the bell-glass and polished the shoes

Till they're black