When All Is Said and Done

NARRATOR
I can't go home now
Back to number 25 with nothing to look forward to
A life without gritting's no life at all
I decide when I've done my round
Buses have stops and trams have rails
But I'm free
I can go where I please
So I'll carry on
Through elevenses and well past lunch
Beyond the A roads and the B roads
Beyond the country lanes and the dirt tracks
And further afield than the furthest field
And if the van holds, grit beyond the sunset
Outside any council jurisdiction
Outside gravitational jurisdiction
Into the sky
Into the clouds
To grit at source
Further and further
To where the stars like cat's eyes mark my route
Until the grit's all gone
And I switch off the barrels
Turn off the slide door freezer
Immobile sounds chimer
And the illuminated fibreglass 99s
Turn off the overhead reading light
Turn off the hazard light
Turn off the dimers
And then, the engine

When all is said and all is done
My bucket kicked
My race been run
My eyes grown weak
My legs have gone
My fallen body does become
My dear departed patiently
Will wait with all the nights for me
And a choir of angels sing for me
The heavens all in harmony
At least that's the way that it's meant to be
That it's meant to be

I had friends to take me dancing
Loved ones to take me home
Strangers for advice
A nurse on the phone
And times when they'd leave me all alone
To see the things, that I'd been shown
Moon on the river
The sky in the sea
Stars in the puddles, to keep me company
Till the day that it takes me far away
From the moon on the river
The sky in the sea
The stars in the puddles to the end of me
The end of me