When Love For Woman Stops - Paul Heaton, Jacqui Abbott

She’s almost forty now

And if life’s fair

It won’t have touched her face

Or touched her golden hair

It won’t have touched the way

She used to speak my name

Like single raindrop

Doesn’t really touch the window pane

She’s probably fifty now

No doubt she’s changed

The wear and tear and doubt

That lives arrange

The wear and tear of no-one there

Drives a girl insane

The doubt of reaching out for love

And getting beat again

There’s no easy way of saying it

No easy way it’s done

The father you looked up to then

No longer loved your mum

Call up social services

Even call the cops

No man’s ever gone to jail

When love for woman stops

She must be sixty now

Well on that route

Down lane of pure disdain

From young and cute

Rolling out red carpet promises

And ringing wedding bell

Gives a special kind of tinnitus

To a girl who knows too well

There’s no easy way of saying it

No easy way it’s done

The father you looked up to then

No longer loved your mum

Call up social services

Even call the cops

No man’s ever gone to jail

When love for woman stops

She’s over seventy now

Way past her best

But the one who holds the key

To love’s treasure chest

Doubtless has a younger flame

To keep him warm at night

Whilst this old one just flickers

In the distant hope he might

There’s no easy way of saying it

No easy way it’s done

The father you looked up to then

No longer loved your mum

Call up social services

Even call the cops

No man’s ever gone to jail

When love for woman stops

She’s in her eighties now

She’s close to death

And the one thing that won’t let her down

Is final breath

So much more reliable

Than the absent talk of men

Nothing quite as black-and-white

As the chequered flag of end

There’s no easy way of saying it

No easy way it’s done

The father you looked up to then

No longer loved your mum

Call up social services

Even call the cops

No man’s ever gone to jail

When love for woman stops