Once I Saw the River Clean

Once I saw the river clean
Distant future, wait for me
I grow pleasing to the eye
And the queue will queue for me

Once I saw the river clean
Soon the clock will strike for me
Childish mind anticipates
Grown-up mind consummates

I walked with my grandmother
Down a windblown Chester Road
With her fifty-two new pence
For her twenty number-tens

And my forty-five pence to
Demand metal guru
Once with hearts securely stacked
Then we walked all the way back

I walked with my grandmother
Along the groan of Talbot Road
In the gardens by the graves
I can just about behave

Arrogant and paranoid
All around, see fathead youth
Look into their brutal eyes
But only if you want the truth

Once I saw the river clean
Scratching up the latest scheme
Time will come but it hasn't yet
Someone’s out to get me

I walked with my grandmother
Cornbread street, we're incomplete
She would never be again
A Dublin dancer, free and young