(She's Leaving Home)


Wednesday morning at five o'clock
As the day begins
Silently closing the bathroom door
Leaving a dump but he hoped would leave more

He goes down the stairs to the kitchen
Opening the refrigerator
Quietly humming a radio tune
Opening a bottle of prunes

He, ... (he knew all of the rules)
Is eating (how to manage soft stools)
Prunes (he’d tried every diet there was)

He sits on the throne but he’s not wearing a crown
Picks up the magazine that's lying there
Sitting alone at the top of the chair
He breaks down and cries to himself
Finally the drought is over
He didn’t realize that it would happen so soon
All from a bottle of prunes

He (always had trouble passing motions)
Is eating (had trouble passing motions)
Prunes (he struggled hard all his life to pass by)
He's eating prunes, to keep his guts in tune for so many years

Friday morning, at nine o'clock
Another day
He has to go to the toilet at noon
His body is regular from prunes

He (didn’t know his diet was wrong)
Is eating (he didn't know it was wrong)
Prunes (Prunes are the one thing that money can't buy)
Something inside, that was always denied
For so many years
He’s eating prunes