Putting the wheels on

It wasn’t meant to discourage you

Banging nails in the seats of your half-built truck

Two planks of wood at the back of the yard

In a garage anorak as the Seventies rain

Beat like the hammer, the nails coming down

Like some sepia, B movie frame

What was I meant to do? To explain – what?

That this thing was going nowhere on its back?

You’re flying a kite son, let it go -  

No ! I came to the place that you were at

Put my coat on, screwed down the bolts and nuts

It takes guts, it’s the little details that...

How was I to know, in between the years

That I was not the one to put wheels on your dreams

I was an old rag and bone boy myself

Put my own pieces on by trial and gut

Just sort of banged it all into place

I wanted to help, don’t you see, from the heart