Paradise Estate

Mrs. Brown wakes up every morning She takes the milk from her doorstep Puts on a pair of faded carpet slippers And walks a painful mile to the launderette Her husband Jack is slowly dying Asbestos poisoning had riddled his insides He got his pension six years early When they took away his job they took away his pride Mrs. Wilson sets her clock for seven To see the children off to school She can't afford to give them breakfast Well not as a rule Her husband Jack has run away Gone with the barmaid from the Roses' Crown Picks up her prescription every Friday She's heading for her second nervous breakdown Jennifer Lee is only seventeen She had a baby when she was still at school Her parents have disowned her And the social service barely calls The father was a boy she met at a party Her sister Debbie's twenty-first She can't remember his face or his name very well Anyway he probably doesn't remember her And every day's the same On paradise estate Because paradise came one day too late We all live in little boxes Boxes made of bricks Boxes for unmarried mothers Elderly and sick Graffiti on the walls Tells it all "Gary loves July" National Front slogans "Jesus is coming" "Kilroy was here" But paradise came one day too late On paradise estate