I met him one night in a drunken haze, down a dark alley having a smoke,
He stepped out of the shadows and asked for a light, a sad looking sort of bloke,
In between the swearing and spitting on the ground, he started to sing a song,
His words cut me straight to the bone, and then I asked him where he came from.
I am the product he says; of generations of fools, of wise men and skillful liars,
Of brave men and women that died for a cause, stirred up by political desires,
The Church and state held them in their hands, pulling them this way and that,
But the blood in my veins goes back further still, now lend us another match.

As we walked along he smoked his cigarette, then he came to a sudden stop,
If you have the money he says; buy us some drink and meet me down by the lock,
Feeling sure I would never see him again, I did as he asked all the same,
Walking back thru the darkness my skin starts to crawl, and then he whispers my name.
As we sit down on the lock gates he pulls out a rag, and starts to blow his nose,
Then he says; you have the poet inside you, that’s why you are the one I have chosen,
I am the voice that you hear in your dreams, when you are laying a sleep in your bed,
The time has come for you to put pen to paper, and unlock the doors inside your head.

Well if nothing else this had to be, a most unusual attempt to get a free drink
But I had to admit he told a hell of a story, and he certainly made me think,
It will be your duty he says; to have no fear and no subject should ever be taboo,
If you only knew the secrets your bloodline holds, and the power that hides in you.
You believe just because you are not well educated, that the words will not come,
But once you have unlocked just one of those doors, you will see that you are wrong,
And now my young friend pass me another drink, and maybe one of your smokes,
He stands up and takes a pee into the lock, has a fit of coughing and nearly chokes.

After he settles down he talks about a journey, that begins at the start of time,
It’s like the call of the wild inside us all, but only some of us seem to find,
Some people will try hard all their lives, and never manage to unlock any doors,
While more hold the key since the day they were born and will never even know.
So many are held back by ignorance, and many years of failures and frustrations,
But against all the odds the mind finds a way, for us to witness all their creations,
By now the supply of beer has just about run dry, and we share my last cigarette,
We shake hands and go our different ways; it’s one night that I will never forget.

Staggering home it occurred to me, all that time I never even asked him his name,
Never in my life had I heard one man talk so much, but I could not drag myself away,
When I arrive at my house I feel very tired, and fumble the keys to open the door,
I try to imagine opening a door in my mind, as I quietly sneak across the floors.
The sheets on the bed are cool and inviting, as I squeeze my body in between,
In less than a minute I am lost to the world, sinking down to the valley of dreams,
Then I awake shivering and cold, lying on grass and shrouded in a freezing mist,
I cannot remember how I even got to the lock, Jesus I must have been really pissed.