The landlady's husband came up to town today    Since he left them both ten years ago to serve the ministry    The dark down road of his approach in constant rain was drenched    The tenant's boy said "How d'ya do" then swore in French    Did you teach this little child these curses on my soul    You should both be shut down in the coal-hole    That's the way to treat a child who cries out in the night    And a woman who teaches wrong from right       He's a Battered Old Bird    And he's living up there    There's a place where time stands still    If you keep taking those little pink pills       "Hush your mouth you hypocrite"    His humour cut her deep    The tight lipped leer of judgement    That had seen her love desert her just like sleep    "Filthy words on children's lips are better, my dear spouse    Then if I were to speak my mind about this house"       He's a Battered Old Bird    And he's living up there    There's a place where time stands still    If you keep taking those little pink pills      On the first floor there are two old maids    Each one wishing that the other was afraid    And next door to them is a man so mild    'Til he chopped off the head of a visitor's child    He danced upon the bonfire    Swallowed sleeping pills like dreams    With a bottle of sweet sherry that everything redeems       He's a Battered Old Bird    And he's living up there    There's a place where time stands still    If you keep taking those little pink pills       And on the second floor is the Macintosh Man    He's in his overcoats more than out of them    And the typewriter's rattling all through the night    He's burgundy for breakfast tight    He says "One day I'll throw away all of my cares    And it is always Christmas in a cupboard at the top of the stairs"       He's a Battered Old Bird    And he's living up there    There's a place where time stands still    If you keep taking those little pink pills       "Well here's a boy if ever there was    Who's going to do big things    That's what they all say and that's how the trouble begins    I've seen them rise and fall    Been through their big deals and smalls    He'd better have a dream that goes beyond four walls"    You think he should be sent outside playing with the traffic    When pieces of him are already scattered in the attic