I’ve been mistaken for a conquistador
When really I just break hearts by accident
There’s no evil in my deeds
And no wickedness in my words
I’m just looking for lovers who are lost

I’ve been trying to fix the unbroken
And all I do is break what can’t be fixed
There’s no cleverness in my words
And no thoroughness in my deeds
I’m just a lost soul looking for love

So you will know me by the trail of broken hearts
And the flower in my buttonhole
And that smug look on my face
And the searchlight in my mind
Aimed at nothing in particular

Last night I closed my eyes
And walked through the abandoned city
Where people hide behind the windows
With closed eyes
Imagining someone’s walking by

As long as we have empathy
Love and unity
Forces louder than words
And louder than bombs

As long as there is moonlight
And music and love and romance
We’ll face the music and dance
And frustrate them with things they don’t know

And we will use our brains to think
And our mouths to speak instead of preach
And our hands to hold the ones we love
And our thoughts for all things constructive

The city of light will always glow
The city of love will never perish
And the only answer we ought to give
Is to celebrate love for and from Paris

From within the safety of the train compartment
Memories, written in stone, glide by
There’s the Roman church
With the statue of the priest and his dog
And the enigmatic farm
Where llamas and ostriches stride
And that one funky albino kangaroo
And after that comes the castle
Which in my mind is inhabited
By an anachronistic loner
A degenerate nobleman
Who hides within his fortress
Hoping that the days of old come back
And after wasted grandeur comes earnest cosines
Carefree children playing football
While their grandfathers smoke
And discuss the Tour de France
And eat Boules de Berlin
Images that I have seen a hundred times before
But  the celebration of triviality
Has never been so precious to me
As these images, gliding by, through the window
Written inside my memory

It’s contagious
And outrageous  
Not very courteous
And quite ferocious
It is ridiculous
To call me pretentious
And  it’s very conspicuous  
That I am, au contraire, extraordinaire

Because I reckoned
That playing a game of chess
Against Death was a bit cliché
I decided to challenge him
For a bit of table tennis
Needless to say
With his boney build
And his empty sockets
I soon smashed
His will to live
To pieces
And I’m especially proud
Of my outstanding performance
In the seventh set

It might not be the thing
You’ve come to associate me with
This elegant display
As I steadily move forward
Do not mistake my slowness
For laziness or worse
I take my time for things I like
As I enjoy the things that slowly pass by
Life’s too short and too fast alike
And I’m just a helpless little pawn
But do not mistake my slowness
For laziness or worse
As you come to see me
As someone who values life
And takes things as they come
Slowly and gently
Like the turtle’s steps