FLORENCE QUITS/PITY THE CHILD

FREDERICK
Five games to two. It's all over -

So you got what you want
What a nasty ambition!
Set me up, pull me down
Then exploit my condition
I should have guessed, woman
That if pressed, woman
You're on nobody's side but your own
And you're behaving
Like a mere woman
It's so clear woman -
It's your sex!
Once they start getting old and getting worried
They let fly, take it out
On the one who supports them
That's you I'm talking about

FLORENCE
Who'd ever guess it?
Such a squalid little ending
Watching you descending
Just as far as you can go
I'm learning things I didn't want to know

FREDERICK
Who'd ever think it?
This would be the situation -
One more observation -
How'd we ever get this far
Before you showed me what you really are?

FLORENCE
You'll be lost without me
To abuse like you're used to

FREDERICK
Go away! Just get out! Be someone else's parasite!
(But Florence has already gone)

FREDERICK
When I was nine I learned survival
Taught myself not to care
I was my single good companion
Taking my comfort there
Up in my room I planned my conquests
On my own - never asked for a helping hand
No one would understand
I never asked the pair who fought below
Just in case they said no

Pity the child who has ambition
Knows what he wants to do
Knows that he'll never fit the system
Others expect him to
Pity the child who knew his parents
Saw their faults, saw their love die before his eyes
Pity a child that wise
He never asked did I cause your distress?
Just in case they said yes

When I was twelve my father moved out
Left with a whimper - not with a shout
I didn't miss him - he made it perfectly clear
I was a fool and probably queer
Fool that I was I thought this would bring
Those he had left closer together
She made her move the moment he walked away
I was the last the woman told
She never let her bed get cold
Someone moved in - I shut my door
Someone to treat her just the same way as before

I took the road of least resistance
I had my game to play
I had the skill, and more - the hunger
Easy to get away
Pity the child with no such weapons
No defence, no escape from the ties that bind
Always a step behind
I never called to tell her all I'd done
I was only her son!

Pity the child but not forever
Not if he stays that way
He can get all he ever wanted
If he's prepared to pay
Pity instead the careless mother
What she missed
What she lost when she let me go
And I wonder does she know
I wouldn't call - a crazy thing to do
Just in case she said who?

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