Helen Dunmore - City Lilacs lyrics

In crack-haunted alleys, overhangs, plots of sour earth that pa** for gardens, in the space between wall and wheelie bin, where men with mobiles make urgent conversation, where bare-legged girls shiver in April winds, where a new mother stands on her doorstep and blinks at the brightness of morning, so suddenly born - in all these places the city lilacs are pushing their cones of blossom into the spring to be taken by the warm wind. Lilac, like love, makes no distinction. It will open for anyone. Even before love knows that it is love lilac knows it must blossom. In crack-haunted alleys, in overhangs, in somebody's front garden abandoned to crisp packets and cans, on landscaped motorway roundabouts, in the depth of parks where men and women are lost in transactions of flesh and cash, where mobiles ring and the deal is done - here the city lilacs release their sweet, wild perfume then bow down, heavy with rain.