Thirteen - Charlie

When she fell in love with her first boy, she was only just thirteen

She never had another look, this one could buy her dreams

So she signed away her life at sixteen

The first kid came in just a year, a son, she called him John

A second, then a third came soon, now her youthful looks had gone

Tired of life and living at nineteen

No hope for what’s to come, just a few broken dreams

Each day seemed the same as the last

This feeling that life’s flashing past, what should she do?

In years still young in mind, so old she knew something must give

It’s easy to say 'Get out, get out!'

when there’s nowhere else to live

And no-one left to turn to, nowhere to go

And so she laboured on for years, each day the same as the last

Washing, ironing, cooking meals, for her the die was cast

Spent her time imprisoned on the ninth floor

And her old man never came home much anymore

«Where have they gone, all my dreams?

The hopes that I had at thirteen?

— I want to live …»