When My Ship Comes In

Lend me only fifty dollars
As my evening has been planned
All my unpaid debts are mounting
Creditors don’t understand
Why I sit beside a woman
In a bar room, drinking gin
But I will drink no more with strangers
When my ship comes in

I will drink no more with strangers
I’ll pay back one hundredfold
I’ll remember every favour
I will pay my friends in gold
But you say my hair needs styling
You say I am getting thin
But I will cut a handsome figure
When my ship comes in

I will cut a handsome figure
I will cease to be controlled
They will have to run to catch me
I will smash the ugly mould
But you throw at me the question
You’ll say, Did you ever win?
And I will point you to my future
When my ship comes in

1985