Now here's a book full of photographs
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That my ancestors made some generations ago
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They're wearing the lastest clothes in a nautical way
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The Suez Canal close behind is frozen in time
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The deck crews star out of a mime
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And they seem to be considering me
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Here on my Egyptian couch
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O the life on Edwardian steamships
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Is measured and slow, while down below
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There are fires that shudder and clang and thunder
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And sweat-caked in smoke, and cauldrons to stoke
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To send the ship on her way
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Tasting the salt and the spray
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And a century later I scan the equator
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From my Egyptian couch
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And the news every day brings
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Contains the strangest of things
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But with confident smilesw my forebears decline
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To gaze into the wings
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So they look from the photographs
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And they're curious now, wondering how we turned out
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Let's say like the Chinese adage
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We're living our lives in interesting times
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My Egyptian Couch
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| Al Stewart |
