Paradise estate

Mrs. Brown wakes up every morning
She takes the milk from her doorstep
Puts on a pair of faded carpet slippers
And walks a painful mile to the launderette

Her husband Jack is slowly dying
Asbestos poisoning had riddled his insides
He got his pension six years early
When they took away his job they took away his pride

Mrs. Wilson sets her clock for seven
To see the children off to school
She can't afford to give them breakfast
Well not as a rule

Her husband Jack has run away
Gone with the barmaid from the Roses' Crown
Picks up her prescription every Friday
She's heading for her second nervous breakdown

Jennifer Lee is only seventeen
She had a baby when she was still at school
Her parents have disowned her
And the social service barely calls

The father was a boy she met at a party
Her sister Debbie's twenty-first
She can't remember his face or his name very well
Anyway he probably doesn't remember her

And every day's the same
On paradise estate
Because paradise came one day too late

We all live in little boxes
Boxes made of bricks
Boxes for unmarried mothers
Elderly and sick
Graffiti on the walls
Tells it all
"Gary loves July"
National Front slogans
"Jesus is coming"
"Kilroy was here"

But paradise came one day too late
On paradise estate