Tom Paxton - Retrospective lyrics

Now, when the paint was dry And the colours set It was painful yet To an honest eye Here, where the walls were hung With the sweat of years The familiar fears Since the hands were young Now, in a battered chair With his tea gone cold And his hands grown old He will sit and stare Here, where his life is hung With the blood in view There's been nothing new Since the hands were young Schoolboys laugh in the streets below Laughter cruel as the long ago Fingers point through the bitter years And the bitter tears Now, when the paint was dry And the die was cast It was clear at last It was all a lie Red never left his hand And the blue was wrong With a green too strong Never what he planned Now, in a rumpled bed With a night to k** He'll be painting still If he isn't dead Now, he can only stare As the old dream falls At the mocking walls And the walls are bare