All the lovers I've had I seemed to mislay
One went mad, one went away
One left a note that said 'The heart repairs'
On the wine cork he wrote 'Love is there'
The shelves we put up at the foot of the stairs
Make me long to be a couple like the ones at Ikea
Now when I dream of a man
I see him putting up shelves (shelves!)

Single, 32, working in IT
Miles Franklin
Gay, discreet
Neatly-bound issues, Wallpaper magazine
Sam Taylor-Wood, Philip Glass symphonies
David Sylvian, 'Dead Bees On A Cake'
Modernist, minimalist, opaque
Japanese tea, lonely old me

The day before you came
The one that got away
My life with Tyler Brule
Whether you care or pretend you don't care
You can't forget 'love is there'
Classified advertisements, Wallpaper magazine
Lines from stupid pop songs, the fragments of a dream
Or simply spring (spring!)
It all begins again

The serene calm of ebonised ash
Modern antiques, ceramics and birch
A stainless steel kitchen, a stainless steel heart
Kuala Lumpur, a world apart
The men I never met
The books I never wrote
Files full of letters and boxes full of notes
A Charles Eames chair, beautiful and bare

The day before you came
The one that got away
My life with Tyler Brule
Whether you care or pretend you don't care
You can't forget 'love is there'
The shelves of magazines
You flipped through idly
Your life as tidy as the Alexandria library
The heart repairs
Like the shelves at the foot of the stairs

The day before you came
The one that got away
My life with Tyler Brule
Discreet or outrageous, scene or non-scene
Love is there, shy and obscene
The men I never met
The books I never wrote
The songs I never sang, my heart full of hope
Or simply spring (spring!)
It all begins again