Institution

The Institution

In the institution Drs do their rounds

They ask how you are feeling what’s getting you do

down?

Nurses serve the dinners Domestics clean the floors

And there’s always a long stand waiting for you in the stores

2 In the institution Patients queue for fags

And some of them have rubbish stored in several bin bags

Staff nurse counts the cutlery makes another pot of tea

There’s a party in the nursing home after work come along with me

Bonfire night and everyone is gathered round the fire

Charlie from the social club gets caught short with desire

The pretty girl in the kitchens has been pleasuring him so

But the ward clerk has reported it now everyone will know….

3 Janis runs the day centre and she’s been there for years

She lives with Len the painter and she knows all the words

To every Beatles song well she’s from Liverpool don’t you know?

She saw them when they first stared out all those years ago

4 A couple in the woodwork group kicking off again

Terry’s had another fit and he needs his PRN

The porters on the blower the trolley will be late

Then it’s be good for the night staff come tomorrow I’m on late

Rick the charge nurse fixes broken cars

He lives on site in staff accommodation but his finest art

Is beating up the patients

I reported him but no

The witnesses were petrified and they as good as told me so I had to go

The group from psyche rehab is cooking beans on toast

In the self help skills department where I swore I saw a ghost

Of a woman pushing an old pram she just floated through the wall

I was staying late rehearsing with my band in the old dance hall

The pretty young psychologist is sitting on my knee

She says this is the first time that she’s taken LSD

You can stay on the sofa bed if you’re really that bleary eyed

But no soon as I’ve mentioned it she’s throwing up outside…

There are women who have lived here all their adult lives

They tell you crazy stories about a missing child

The punishment in those days was to throw away the key

There’s a world of bitter sadness here and subjective cruelty

In the institution

It’s an institution

We are the institution