When a man of my age shaves his face in the mornin' Who is it stares back and greets him? The ghost of his father, long dead all these years? Or the boy that he was, still wet in the ears? Or the terrible sum of all of his fears In the eyes of this stranger who meets him? So his glance rarely strays from his chin or his jawline To face up to the truth of his soul It's the eyes he avoids, so afraid to acknowledge Somethin' strange, unexpected, out of control There are times when a man needs to brave his reflection And face what he sees without fear It takes a man to accept his mortality Or be surprised by the presence of a tear It was only an arrangement, a practical arrangement I forgot the first commandment of the realist's handbook Don't be fooled by illusions you created yourself And fall in love with someone, when she loves someone else Like a coverin' of snow on a winter's night It glistens and it sparkles in the moonlight But it's gone by the mornin', how quickly it melts You still love her, but she loves someone else And where does that leave you? You self-styled man of vision You feel stupid, you feel angry, are you losin' your mind? To destroy the one she loves, does that become your mission? Like a pantomime villain, with an axe to grind To regain your self-respect, hold your head up like a man Use the ice around your heart before it melts But you're not foolin' anybody, you're only foolin' yourself Like a coverin' of snow on a winter's night It glistens and it sparkles in the moonlight But it's gone by the mornin', how quickly it melts You still love her, but she loves someone else