Poetic Divination | London’s Brilliant

“London’s Brilliant” by Elvis Costello

I didn’t want to be some satellite clown

So I went up to London ‘cos I heard it’s falling down

Found the Dennis the Menace of Little Venice

Still digging up the bones of Strummer and Jones

Revolutionary days were sadly over

And a cool profile down Ladbroke Grove

Won’t make it no more

You could wake up in a doorway

London’s brilliant when it’s raining

Everybody moaning and complaining

London’s dismal and divine

And I know one day, one day…

It’s going to be…

Mine eyes have seen the gory faces

of those bitter men and their bawdy talk

And that’s not all

Every night before I closed my eyes

I’d say a prayer to my desires

Hung up on a poster on the wall

Don’t let me grow up to fail and fall

If I must grow up at all

Well the night’s got chilly and he swore he’d love me silly

But he couldn’t raise a spark in the dark in Hyde Park

With a bite and a bark, he tried to make his mark

Now he’s getting fucked silly somewhere in Piccadilly

He said I could be a little Madam in Mayfair

But I’d rather wake up in a doorway somewhere

‘Cos in the long run

I’ll probably be someone

London’s brilliant when it’s raining

Everybody moaning and complaining

London’s dismal and divine

And I know one day, one day…

It’s going to be…

(Again, a better song to listen to instead of just reading the lyrics . . . but it makes the cut because the last five lines of the second verse have been running on a repeating loop in my head for over a week.)