The Girl Who Slept for Scotland

Album: Modern Blues (2015)
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  • I tried to sleep upon my back so I could
    Hold her all night long as in my
    Arms she slept, alas, but no I couldn't
    And when daybreak came and found her
    At the far side of the bed I tried to
    Wake her, tried to stir her, but she wouldn't
    In her fug she lay like someone dead
    And even when I'd tug her head and
    Press and nip and agitate and shake her
    Or call her name or whisper it against her ear,
    My breath warm, there were
    No words in this universe would wake her

    The girl who slept for Scotland

    It took me time to comprehend
    This state of play extended unto
    All her working, waking, shaking hours
    For when she finally woke, deep in the day
    Still she did sleepwalk like a hollow ghost
    A-float in haunted towers
    And though she heard she didn't see
    And though she saw she didn't hear,
    Attending only to what seemed precise and kind
    For she was settled in her dream,
    A shopping list of small illusions,
    Pretty stories that she told her drowsy mind

    The girl who slept for Scotland

    Yet I remember a day by a river wild
    When she clung to me hard like a darling child
    And a night in the sheets of a Dublin bed
    When she moaned like a woman
    And gave sweet head
    When we sang in tongues together
    And our synchronised guitars
    Played music to the rafters
    Made love among the stars
    And our bodies beat like light
    In love's bold embrace
    As her tiny kisses burst like
    Popping suns around my face

    But then drift, recline, collapse,
    The lights went out, she fell asleep again
    Before my kiss-wet face was even dry
    I need another haircut she'd say,
    Talking in her sleep, the sleep-motes
    Gathered in the dust-bowls of her eye
    She teetered down the road apiece,
    She and her man, from dozy bedsit land
    To junkshop, with her sleeping clothes in sacks
    And when I'd gone she teetered down the road again,
    Yawning as she went,
    And went and brought the bloody damn things back

    The girl who slept for Scotland Writer/s: FREDDIE STEVENSON, MICHAEL SCOTT
    Publisher: Global Talent Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

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