They'll always find a place for you in the sidewalk cafes

No one ventures into the streets these days

Except strangers and those like me, looking for work

I noticed the smell when I got off the bus

And traced it down to a canal that ran

Right through the heart of the city

Like an open vein full of black rotten blood

A mirror surface broken only by the bubbles of gas

Escaping from the stagnating mess that lay on the bottom

Fuelled by the chemicals and effluent of the city

Which was fed, in turn, by the barges and the ships

That followed that line and created the waves across that

Surface to the dockside where they unloaded their holds,

The swarms of people clambering over them



I sat down in a cafe and I was holding my own

And minding my own business

And a voice spoke in my ears as if it recognized

That I was questioning the source of the smell



Have another beer boy, take it with a pinch of snuff

And my eyes were bedazzled, by the jewels in his silken cuff

And a voice rolled out from an ashen cloud from behind a long cigar

Son, you'll never need to smell the black canal



It was as if he'd read my mind, as if he expected it

And, as the afternoon was wasted, I became aware

I was becoming wrapped up in his world

I became aware of the smell from the bouquet in his buttonhole



It was taking me away from the canal

And away from my questions

I was aware that the perfumes were all around us

And he sold me the city, well at least he tried to with all his stories



All the silks out of China

And all the satins out of Spain

All the powders for your noses

Will keep the stench at bay



Have another beer boy, take it with a pinch of snuff -acapo