Coles Lane Crossing

And I felt pressed and dried like a flower
Inbetween the pages of their lives
Like a chapter added to a story
Neither of them meant to write

And there was violence under every word he said
He would raise his hand for silence
As if to slap at the very air between us
And then he'd do much more than that

And my mother she had been a singer
In a going nowhere band around our town
And my father would wait in the car to pick her up
And then he never put her down

And I met him at the railway crossing
When the Hume did its best to miss Coles Lane
And he took me as far as Mullengandra
And then he drove me home again

And he was neither handsome nor a thinker
But he talked and talked until I had to smile
So when he lay his arm across my shoulder
I let him leave it there a while

So when the school called my mother with a question
I have only seen that moment in my mind
For I was already on a train to Sydney
Leaving all you ghosts behind

Time keeps marching on me like a soldier
Knee deep in the mud but pressing on
And now I cannot go home until all you ghosts are gone
And that might take more time than we have left
And all these clocks unwinding
Unwinding

And I had savings from a job last Christmas
I got myself a room above the Cooper's Arms
And I would watch all the pretty boys on King's street
Hailing down those passing cars

By now I couldn't even hope to keep you secret
Swollen heavy as the yolk around my neck
And when the doctor told me you were holding healthy
I knew my mother's own regrets

And I met him on the way home from the station
When I had failed again to join the daily grind
And he was lean and seemed hungry for conversation
And by then I was hungry all the time

Time keeps marching on me like a soldier
Knee deep in the mud but pressing on
And now I cannot go home until all you ghosts are gone
And that might take more time than we have left
And all these clocks unwinding
Unwinding

But there's nothing that I wouldn't do for you my child
You're the only thing I know is truly mine
So when he lay his arms around my shoulder
I let him leave it there a while

And now we cannot go home until all you ghosts are gone
Now we cannot go home until all you ghosts are gone
Now we cannot go home until all you ghosts are gone

And that might take more time than we have left
And all these clocks unwinding