The Picture I Drew

Verse 1

When I was seven, I drew it clear

A little house where the sun would appear

White picket fence and a garden gate

Two kids chasing, before it got late

I’d be a mum by thirty-three

Kiss them goodbye, then off to me

A job that felt like more than just pay

Friends round the table, every holiday

Mum and Dad would come every Sunday

Bake us cakes, watch the children play

I thought I knew how the story would go

That bright, bright future I’d come to know

Pre-Chorus

I held that picture right to my chest

Believed it all, it was all I could get

Time moved fast, and the lines got blurred

And every promise got slowly deferred

Chorus

Oh the future I dreamed, it looked nothing like this

I thought I’d have love, and a life full of bliss

Nearly forty now, and I’m still on my own

No kids, no home, just a phone that’s never known

No friends to call, no place to lay roots down

I’m scared of what’s waiting when tomorrow comes round

I still want the things I dreamed of back then

But I’m starting to think they were only for them

Verse 2

Now I wake up to the same old view

Rent’s too high, and the work’s all I do

It doesn’t feel like mine, it just feels like a chore

I come home to silence, and I lock the door

My parents are older, they ask how I am

I say I’m fine, I don’t tell them the plan

Never happened, not even close

I’m drifting slow where the current goes

No one to laugh with, no one to hold

No memories building, just days growing old

Pre-Chorus

I still hold that picture right to my chest

Want it so bad, but it feels less and less

Time moved fast, and the lines got all blurred

And every hope got slowly deferred

Chorus

Oh the future I dreamed, it looked nothing like this

I thought I’d have love, and a life full of bliss

Nearly forty now, and I’m still on my own

No kids, no home, just a phone that’s never known

No friends to call, no place to lay roots down

I’m scared of what’s waiting when tomorrow comes round

I still want the things I dreamed of back then

But I’m starting to think they were only for them

Bridge

Some days I still hope it might turn around

That the right one will find me, that peace will be found

That I’ll save up for windows, and paint every wall

That people will stay, when I answer the call

I want my kids to know their grandparents’ hand

I want holidays by the sea, in the sand

But the years keep slipping right through my fingers

And the bright little picture slowly lingers

Outro

When I was little, I drew it so clear…

A happy life… it was all I could hear…

I still want it now… I still want it so…

But the future’s not the one I used to know…