Middle-Class Heroes - The Divine Comedy

Hello, what have we here?

A young lady

To what do I owe this pleasant surprise, my pretty one?

How may I be of service this dark and wintry night?

Ahh, I see.

You wish me to look into the future

Your future

After GCSEs, A-levels, university

After your first badly paid job in advertising

Okay, my pretty

Just cross my hand with plastic

And I’ll see what we can do

Wait, the fog is lifting

I see Oriental paper globes

Hanging like decomposing cocoons

While exotic candles overload

The musty air with their stale perfumes

And I see lentils, beans, seaweed, and rice

In jars on the windowsill

And it ain’t hardly enough to feed the mice

Running behind the lines of allergy pills

All these things will come to pass

When heroes of the middle class

Face up to their responsibilities

I see an Indian fertility god

He’s got 37 limbs to spare

And tasteless tie-dyed tablecloths

That double up as evening wear

And I see naked bodies twist and turn

On the futon of dreams fulfilled

But their three year old kid seems unconcerned

He’d rather swallow all those allergy pills

All these things will come to pass

When heroes of the middle class

Face up to their responsibilities

I see

Unspeakable vulgarity

Institutionalized mediocrity

Infinity tragedy

Rise up, little souls

Join the doomed army

Fight the good fight

Wage the unwinnable war

Elegance against ignorance

Difference against indifference

Wit against shit

Oh my words fly up to heaven

My thoughts remain below

Words said without feeling

Never to heaven go

Never to heaven go

Never to heaven go

Never to heaven go

All these things will come to pass

When heroes of the middle class

Face up, repent, and pay the price

For accidentally creating life

An oversight for which they must atone

And sacrifice their own