Harry's House / Centerpiece

Heatwaves on the runway
As the wheels set down
He takes his baggage off the carousel
He takes a taxi into town

Yellow schools of taxi fishes
Jonah in a ticking whale
Caught up at the lights in the fishnet windows
Of Bloomingdale's

Watching those high fashion girls
Skinny black models with raven curls
And beauty parlor blondes with credit card eyes
Looking for the chic and the fancy to buy

He opens up his suitcase
In the continental suite
And people 30 stories down
Look like colored currents in the street

A helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof
Like a dragonfly on a tomb
And businessmen in button-downs
Press into conference rooms

Battalions of paper-minded males
Talking commodities and sales
While at home, their paper wives and paper kids
Paper the walls to keep their gut reactions hid

Yellow checkers for the kitchen
Climbing ivy for the bath
She is lost in "House and Gardens"
He's caught up in "Chief of Staff"

He drifts off into the memory
Of the way she looked in school
With her body oiled and shining
At the public swimming pool

The more I'm with you, pretty baby
The more I feel my love increase
I'm building all my dreams around you
Our happiness will never cease
'Cause nothing's any good without you
Baby, you're my centerpiece

We'll find a house and garden somewhere
Along a country road a piece
A little cottage on the outskirts
Where we can really find release
'Cause nothing's any good without you
Baby, you're my centerpiece

When'll you be home, Harry?
Get down off of there
God, I sure am sick of that sofa
When'll you be home, Harry?
I said, get down off of there
Nothing's any good
When'll you be home, Harry?
Nothing's any good

Shining hair and shining skin
Shining as she reeled him in
To tell him like she did today
Just what he could do with Harry's House
And Harry's take-home pay