The Absence Of You

Db       Eb          Ab
I take a walk on the Seine,
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Cross Pont Neuf on my way to St Germain.
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Love-hearts on padlocks on wire in the mist,
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Where young lovers kiss and swear to be true.
          Eb           Ab       Eb7          Fm
Echoes of ten thousand signs of love, and yet I
     Db       Eb         Ab
Feel only the absence of you.


[Verse]
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Out of the window on the thirtieth floor,
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Central park shines with the coming of dawn.
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Through eyes rendered weary by jet-lag and wine,
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I turn ‘round to find there’s a girl in my room
      Eb        Ab            Eb7          Fm
For a moment we kiss, but her vodka-soaked lips
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Taste only of the absence of you.


[Chorus]
Ab      Fm
I don’t know
                 Cm
What all of this means
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If you are not here with me.
    Ab   Fm
And I am lost
             Cm
When we are apart,

There’s a hole in my heart,
                  Db
That light passes through.

And the pattern it creates is the shape of
               Ab
The absence of you.


[Verse]
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Spring has been found hanging ‘round Soho square,
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So I take my coffee and newspaper there,
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To bask in the not warm enough April sun
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With the workers who come to eat Pret with no shoes.
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But the grass to the side of the patch where I’m lying
   Db            Eb         Ab
Is flat with the absence of you.


[Chorus]
Ab       Fm
I don’t know
                 Cm
What all this is for
               Db   Eb Db
If you are not near to me.
    Ab       Fm
And I cannot sleep.
            Cm
Sleep is no fun

If the unruly sun,
                Db
Will reveal the truth,

A space in my bed as cold as the dead,
                                                  Ab
Exactly the size and the shape of the absence of you.


[Outro]
             Cm
More of this beauty runs over and through me
                   Db
And pools round my shoes.

And the puddle it forms
                                         Ab
Conforms to the shape of the absence of you.