[Verse 1]
Sank into their calculations
And snorted on a stench
Of their arithmetic
Look for the boy who was hanging his head low
More trophies and ideas
To follow their pretend

[Chorus]
With a scowl in his pocket
And a smile on his face
He followed with obedience
And fell in the nettles

[Verse 2]
Afterwards those spiky whispers
Said he brought his own rope
And skipped the bits they loathed
Didn’t scramble to find a dock leaf
And capture back our hope
To advice his mind had closed
He lost all of his foot holds

[Chorus]
And with a scowl in his pocket
And a smile on his face
He followed with obedience
And fell in the nettles
Fell in the nettles, fell in the nettles
[Bridge]
He was a toothpick and the garlic
And the cinder upon the path
Had failed to blunt or hinder
The slow collapse
And clinging to the door frame
He was trapped
Off to a reminder
Of where he had been

[Chorus]
With a smile in his pocket
And a scowl on his face
There was nowhere to flee
So sat content in the nettles

[Outro]
(Ah!)