It was uptown on a Saturday at noon
The very last time i saw Eileen alive
I on the street in front of the corner shop
She stepping onto the cross-town No. 5

She looked into, and instantly right through, me
As i pretended, in my way, not to care
And i remember the sun-soaked smokey heat
And the humid and stale smell of the still air

There was, a lifetime ago, a place we shared
A space in time that was simply ours alone
But those times were tough for everyone in town
And i lost it all taking the long way home

It was a fire and flame of tremendous heat
And we were fools to think it would never die
In the end, it was both of us badly burned
When the wind blew away that beautiful lie

The last i heard she was working Thompson's bar
And was staying at my old friend Mickey's place
Security she found and the ring she wore
Forgave her scarred neck and the bruise on her face

That was the year Olivia had turned six
Little girls always seem to grow up so fast
My friends all told me she had my smile and eyes
But Eileen and Mick kept the past in the past

It is all a painful memory today
And in many ways it is all i have got
The burn on my chest will never fade away
Knowing she loved me for all that i am not

The river carrying our faces and names
Rolls ever gently and steady out to sea
And it is the sun and the moon that play games
With all of the stories that can never be