Auteur: Pieter-Jan De Smet

AUGUST

Fleur says she doesn’t want to be picked anymore

I say I understand and then I tear off her blouse

Fleur sings the ballad of Wedding Gaol

I hum along, it gets me so aroused

Fleur says dying in her prime would be a sin

And I treat her with all respect

Fleur says her forehead is quite different from mine

What did she expect?

It’s August and we’re dying

A little day by day

August and we’re trying

To kill our joys with pain

Fleur gives names to all the anomalies

That have bruised her petals and bruised her heart

She gives names to all my apologies

I guess you can call that art

Fleur laughs when she cries and kisses me goodnight

I wipe away her tears and I want inside

Now Fleur says nothing and then she curses the moon

May she have her wish and die in her sleep soon

It’s August and we’re dying

A little day by day

August and we’re trying

To kill our joys with pain

De Smet / Burton, 1996

PAINTER

How I wish I were a painter

I’d reinvent the use of black

How I’d paint all of your anger

And all the muscles of your back

All the dirt that got into you

All the nails deep in my side

All undressed and on the floor

All by myself, open wide

How I wish I were a painter

I’d paint your face in infrared

To light my way on this tightrope

Honey I’m a lousy acrobat

Seeing you so alarmingly happy

Can make me so incredibly sad

The things you say and the things I see

The contrast between wrong and bad

I’m not like you, I’m not new

I’m just like you, nothing’s new

Seeing you so alarmingly happy

Can make me so incredibly sad

The things you say and the things I see

The contrast between wrong and bad

De Smet / Burton, 1996

FIRE

Fire took my mother, fire took my dad

Fire took my sister, the only one that I ever had

Fire took my cousins, fire took my friends

Fire took my chickens too, fire took you

Now I’m left alone with Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan

I’m left alone with starving people, just me and my two hands

I’m left alone with China and the whole of South America

I’m left alone with some fascists too, left alone without you

Gonna buy myself a weapon, gonna buy myself a boat

Gonna buy myself a mountain, gonna buy myself a coat

Gonna buy myself a reason, gonna buy myself some dope

Gonna give myself a light, gonna burn myself alive

Fire took the furnace and it’s getting kinda cold in here

Rain won’t take that fire away, it’s never gonna disappear

Fire took my family, fire took my world

Fire took the zoo, fire take me too

Pieter-Jan De Smet, 1993

Baby’s in the World

Baby’s in the world

and I’m somewhere apart from here

Baby is my girl

and the world knows I adore her

The cat’s in the curtain and the house sticks with dirt

And I think of her

Winter’s at the door, heating’s what I’m waiting for without her,

Without her

Ah, Baby’s in the world

Schubert’s on the stereo, bluesier than ever

And I long for her

She’s somewhere in the world, doesn’t have a CD player

And I envy her

‘cause being in the world has got no materialistic influence

on her

Alone here on my island, i’m dreaming about her highlands

Like a conqueror, I wanna conquer her

Ah, Baby’s in the world

I got a bottle of spirits

But no bread, nor any eggs to boil

I’m her low profiled long haired lover

From Liverspoil

I’m just a little tired

I need to get some sleep alongside of her

Baby’s in the world

The world is far away and I miss her

I’m just a little tired

I need to get some sleep alongside of her

Baby’s in the world

The world is far away and I miss her

The world is far away and I miss her

Pieter-Jan De Smet, 1993