The Beautiful Changes

by Clive James and Pete Atkin

The green-covered place that I went to in spring
With a notebook and what cigarettes I could bring
The cloverleaf crossing now ties in a ring
And how the beautiful changes

When the men with a dream who are never refused
Drum up the exciting to reap the unused
The lovers are judged and condemned unaccused
And the beautiful dies with the harvest

Now the loveliest creatures that God ever made
Have all picked a partner and joined the parade
Where they'll crack up together from making the grade
And how the beautiful changes

They pull into the kerb and they crowd out the bars
Watching an astronaut fall toward Mars
He's talking in clichés that put out the stars
And the beautiful dies with the harvest

Too late is the way a man finally learns
The light of salvation recedes and returns
As you freeze with the cold or you croak from the burns
And how the beautiful changes

In the pink of the sunset high over the park
The con-trails are tracing their spiral and arc
As the angels turn eastwards to fight back the dark
And the beautiful dies with the harvest

With gaps in the fabric, regrets never mend
I've seen the eternities crawl to their end
The comedown of many a fine-feathered friend
And how the beautiful changes

There's a fine line between love of living and greed
Say the men of affairs and deliberate speed
As the ugly goes into the ground with the seed
And the beautiful dies with the harvest

Now the fire of redemption is a guttering flame
A man is an image before he's a name
And the deadly arrangement that fixes the game
Is the way the inhuman is always the same
And how the beautiful changes
How the beautiful changes