This melancholy fug
burrows into my bones
After delving back again
into those memories recounted
with such forensic clarity
Comes a cold blue atmosphere
a fragrant longing
and precision-tooled regret

Those searingly stark lines
old faces, wild flames
lost friendships resurrected 
I’m dropped back into the thick of things
Drifting through teenage streets
old freedoms, vintage fantasi...

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Going out to meet a friend
to be the ear to their unspooling
coughing up confusions
unpacking problems
unhappy hour
at some pub table

I’m the calm eyes
the easy conversation
pliers to cut the wire
defuse that complicated 
emotional bomb
over a couple of drinks

There’ll be no judgement
only sympathy
a gentle steer
of thoughts towards solutions
or mostly
I’ll just listen

That...

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Walking past The Boot tonight
a warm but sunless dusk
The door was open wide
drinkers shuffling and spilling out

I think of that favourite friend
who brought me here five years ago
We played some pool, supped our beer
as he talked of his dilemma

His partner wanted children
but regrettably, he did not
she gave him ultimatums
and he wasn’t sure what to do

When the world stopped for...

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You paint yourself blue, always blue
this letter brings me down
perched upon a rusty trailer
paint peels over my shoulder

I've been drinking 
since the boats were rested
on the muddy estuary bed

It's high tide, low life
high tide, low life

I won't stop my reaching out
if there's any way to help, I'll find it
you're so slow to take my hand
scratching at your skin for answers

I ...

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Squinting at the good old days
through a low winter sun
dreaming of those times
spent down on the sand
lost in the blue hour
or scheming on a journey
deep into the night
We could have gone anywhere
a can raised to the sky
and on our faces only smiles
for miles
and miles and miles

So many friendships
left behind at other stations
back down the tracks
My friendships; all are fraying
...

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That sixteen-year-old words 
scratched there in a diary
could bring the two of us here
seems almost supernatural

A spring-evening walk, so like us
the us we were as teens
when you were my first and still my only kiss
as we walked the peaceful parks of home

Now so many years stretch across
a wide valley of unshared experience
squealing and dancing between us
slowly and methodically w...

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What do we have
at the end of our walk
just the smiles on our faces
and a pocketful of rain

I have learned from you all
I have laughed with you all
I have burned for you all
but always, always you'll be gone

What do we have 
at the end of our walk
just the things we have shared
and a pocketful of rain

So grateful to have seen you
I'm honoured to have met you
indebted to your fr...

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Friday night we walked along the beach
talking over a static sea
through all we wearily witnessed this year
still we speak in riddles
the way men often can
it only gets harder as you get older
weighted with expectation
You didn't turn to face me
kept your eyes fixed on the horizon
said 'she's pregnant' 
with a pregnant smile

Black boots kicking stones across wet sand
choking out cong...

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All that you invest is what may be won
it's just an echo coming back
and yet we hang in helpless wait
the hollow world rings on and on

Who can answer what you do not ask
low odds of someone calling out
just at the moment you need them to
the hollow world rings on and on

Those pretty faces, so carefully curated
those galleries of happinesses waiting
changeless irrespective of your fee...

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