The Optimist

Things are bad now
but let me tell you they were never any better
that’s what Dorene always told me
every time I met her
standing outside her font door
waiting for a kid to go by that she could ask for
a pack of cigarettes and a loaf of white bread from the store
and she’d give him three quid
if the kid ‘d get what she asked for

Things are bad now
but let me tell you they were never any better
that’s how Dorene would start
and she’d go on if I let her
she’d say “hard men were just as hard back then
you wouldn’t want to cross anyone one of them
and if you did
you’d regret it”
she’d say, “things are bad now, but back then
they weren’t any better”

and now we’re crying
despairing of our kind
people are unpredictable and cruel
and you’re scared to even send our kids to school
and I’m the optimist
and all I can think to say is
Things are bad now
but let me tell you they were never any better

instrumental

and i don’t even know what made me think of this
maybe it was driving by the street where Dorene’s old house is
she has long since died
and her street’s been gentrified
but when you saw in the paper ‘bout Paris and it upset you
I remembered what Dorene always told me
and it made me feel better

now we’re crying
despairing of our kind
people are unpredictable and cruel
and you’re scared to even send our kids to school
and I’m the optimist
and all I can think to say is
Things are bad now
but let me tell you they were never any better