Postcard Day lyrics

My eyes are white circles above cheekbones on fire:

Pale hand gripping my pen,

Rounding up to the zero, adding infinite fractions

Letting nine become ten.

Two pink doves strut the shingles

Picking crumbs from the breakfast I saved

For you dear. And I wish you were here

On this postcard day.

Focus on the fine indeterminate line

Where the sky meets the sea.

Desperate midweek words, banal and absurd

Freely flow out of me.

Well, I may be a hostage to summer

But I'm a hostage, not a slave.

And I'm clear that I wish you were here

On this postcard day.

Precious cargo of flotsam: mixed memories on an ocean tide

Swim madly with spice from the orient

On a mystery watery carpet ride

But with the sun going down, the wind goes around;

Blows them back out of mind.

My eyes are white circles staring down past the point

Of my restless pen,

While the ghosts of my youth all sworn to the truth

Call my name again.

Two brown legs don't make a summer

But two brown arms couldn't keep me away.

Well, my dear, I wish you were here

On this postcard day.

• Artist:Ian Anderson
• Album:The Secret Language of Birds (2000)