Waterboys
I remember Johnny – hey!
Johnny come lately
I remember her shoes like a ballerina
a girl called Johnny who
changed her name when she
discovered the choice was to
change or to be changed
I remember a girl called Johnny
black as hell and white as a ghost
“Don’t talk, please, about life and death,”
she’d say, “I’ve had enough of both.”
A girl called Johnny who was not scared
they would have torn her to pieces but
who would dare
I remember a girl called Johnny
the train came to town, BOY! she got on it
without looking back, barely a word
if she said goodbye, well, I never heard
but the noise goes on
the NOISE! The JAZZ!
and the truth is in somebody else’s hands
and the house that a girl called Johnny built
is now just so much
ashes and sand.