Pram Lyrics

Iron Lung

Cumulus

It started with an orange glow over the woods.
I left my washing and went outside the door, and it
was like the brightest star shining in the sky.
We stood and watched until it disappeared.
We lead a quiet life in our station by the road, where
the winds sing through the humming wires.
We watch day sky for cumulus, we watch the night
for other burning stars.

Water Toy

My ice boat won’t sail
All around the rotting fish-heads lie
And it’s stricken in the green waves that oily slick slap at its sides
I set sail when she died
From her body came a bowlful of tumours
And the stink and the flies hang around my sore head like a halo
In this rusty shell I lie and the flies buzz
Buzz around the gauze on my head

Blue Singer

She was a blue singer
had 14 children on the porch
with slack breasts around her waist
under her cotton shift

She sang, blew herself up
with thin ankles neat
and like a fat billow, a balloon
she flew away

High above the town she flew

Her children ran after her
with pins to bring her down
She opened her mouth and tried 
to sing before she died

Iron Lung

Do you remember, her face in the wreckage.
The fireman held you upside - down, and your eyes were red.
They told you she was sleeping.
Do you remember, the staircase leading to nowhere?
The fires were burning all over the town.
That noises it echoes, it sighs and wheezes.
The machine in the corner now does your breathing.