Bedsitter Images - Al Stewart

The subway station’s closed again

Sleeps beneath its veil of rain

my footprints broken trail behind

Steals the nightlights from my mind

The dark deserted streets then clear

Today has lived and died in here

So I leave the chapel gloom

To find the shelter of my tiny room

But it’s alright while the lights of the city shine so bright

It’s all right till the last winding train fades from sight

Then alone in my room I must stay to lose or win

While these wild bedsitter images come back to hem me in The panneled patens (patterns?) on the door

chase shivering shadows to the floor

Upon the pillow worn and thin

the memories of hopes begin

the carpet with its flowers and shredding

spires a foot before my bed

the crack that won’t return again

advancing through my broken window pane

But it’s alright while the lights of the city shine so bright

It’s all right till the last winding train fades from sight

Then alone in my room I must stay to lose or win

While these wild bedsitter images come back to hem me in The friends I’ve left back home all write

with laughing words that warm my sight

saying «Tell us, how’s the city life?»

I reply and say just fine (why?)

and so you see I can’t go back

until I either win or crack

I’m standing in a one way street

The stage is set

The story incomplete

But it’s alright while the lights of the city shine so bright

It’s all right till the last winding train fades from sight

Then alone in my room I must stay to lose or win

While these wild bedsitter images come back to hem me in