Elkie Brooks

Groom Still Waiting At The Altar

Elkie Brooks


Prayed in the ghetto with my
Face in the cement
Heard the last moan of a boxer
Seen the massacre of the innocent
Hurled around for the light switch
Hurled around for his face
Been treated like a farm animal
On a wild goose chase

West side of Jordan
East of the rock of Gibraltar
I see you turn another page
Curtain rising on a new age
The groom still waiting at the altar

Try to be pure at heart
They arrest you for robbery
Mistake your shyness for aloofness
Your silence for snobbery
Got the message this morning
The one that was sent to me
About the madness all becoming
What one was never meant to be

West side of Jordan
East of the rock of Gibraltar
I see you turn another page
Curtain rising on a new age
The groom still waiting at the altar

Don't know what I could say about all that
That wouldn't come back to haunt me
Finally had to give him up
About the time he began to want me
But God have mercy
On them who were slandered and humiliated
I'd have done anything for that man
If he didn't make me feel obligated

West side of Jordan
East of the rock of Gibraltar
I see you turn another page
Curtain rising on a new age
The groom still waiting at the altar

Put your hand on my head baby
Do I have a temperature?
I see people supposed to know better
Standing round like furniture
There's a wall between you
What you want, you've got to leap it
Tonight you got the power to take it
Tomorrow you won't have the power to keep it

West side of Jordan
East of the rock of Gibraltar
I see you turn another page
Curtain rising on a new age
The groom still waiting at the altar

City's on fire
Phone's out of order
They're killing nuns and soldiers
Fighting on the border
What can I say about all that?
Well, I ain't seen him since January
He could be respectably married
Or running a whole house in Buenos Aries

West side of Jordan
East of the rock of Gibraltar
I see you turn another page
Curtain rising on a new age
The groom still waiting at the altar