The actor leaves the stage with a rose in his hand

He settles in the back seat his thoughts are like fine sand

Driven through the rain swept streets casting a melancholy stare

Upon two enraptured loves kissing without a care



The dreams of an actor spill slowly by

Like the thoughts of a dreamer or the casting of a die

Talking to gay fellows of the follies on which they perch

He saw a lovely lady beneath the arches of a church



Cigarettes in the airless twenties

An estate well filled with dust

In the evening reading Swinburne

Eating mightily with some false lust

But a kiss was what we found

On damp but friendly ground



The lady wore no makeup but she stood like a swan

Thin body of a dancer her dress was quietly torn

Her eyes searched his distant heart that lingered in the ram

But his friends caught his iron gaze and carried it away again



Broken hearted in the loveless twenties

Where a wink was like an embrace

Making love on blue fridays

From across some foggy space

But a kiss was what we found

On damp but friendly ground



Tea was like a mirror a reflection never there

His thoughts upon that ring of love that burned upon her stare

Her eyes her lips her chin her grace the rain upon her hair

Thus it gripped his white gloved heart can anyone be so fair



Untied in the breezy twenties

With a hand held in my arms

Bearing my heart to the hallowed spires

Of this quiet and ancient land

For a kiss was what we found

On damp but friendly ground