On a morning from a Bogart movie   In a country where they turn back time   You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre   Contemplating a crime   She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running   Like a watercolour in the rain   Don't bother asking for explanations   She'll just tell you that she came   In the year of the cat      She doesn't give you time for questions   As she locks up your arm in hers   And you follow 'till your sense of which direction   Completely disappears   By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls   There's a hidden door she leads you to   These days, she says, I feel my life   Just like a river running through   The year of the cat      Well, she looks at you so cooly   And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea   She comes in incense and patchouli   So you take her, to find what's waiting inside   The year of the cat      Well, morning comes and you're still with her   And the bus and the tourists are gone   And you've thrown away your choice and lost your ticket   So you have to stay on   But the drum-beat strains of the night remain   In the rhythm of the new-born day   You know SOMETIME you're bound to leave her   But for now you're going to stay   In the year of the cat