Leaving (Song for an Artist)

Amongst all that paper I went through tonight, I found a poem I told a friend today that I'd written her. When we were 18, she left our sleepy little home town to go to Uni in Tasmania. With the big circle of tightly knit friends we all get after high school for a while, losing one of your own is devastating. I remember I wrote something when she first left, but it really was atrocious... more so than this one.

This one was written 3 years later when I first heard from my absent friend again after my Mum died. She called me up to offer her condolences, which I thought was really nice of her and I never forgot it. We did lose touch though until Schoolfriends.com and MSN let us catch up. Now she annoys the crap out of me any time she feels like it (:P Dags).

Leaving (Song For An Artist)

Portrait of you in black & white,
Your hair is short, your face is grey.
Are you sad? Or is it just the light?
I guess you took it yourself,
I suppose you meant it that way.

It's three years on and I miss you like crazy,
It's been so long since I heard your voice.
I'd write you a letter but I guess I'm too lazy,
I'd have you here if I had my choice.

Saw you walk through that customs gate
And it really brought me down,
Should have know you were gone forever,
You were always too good for this town.
When you told us all that day,
That you were leaving for the Strait,
I don't think I beleived until,
I couldn't see you through that gate.

Friends for life or so they say,
But sometimes things don't work out right,
Time goes on, people change,
The days can turn to the longest night.
You can't keep things that were never yours,
Don't complain, that's just the way things are,
You can't go opening closing doors,
There's no way to catch a falling star.

So now I'm here and you're still in Hobart,
That reality's final, you made your choice,
I'll give you a call just as oon as I'm sober,
Just don't expect that same old voice,
My throat these days, it croaks with sadness,
I've had some pain in these last few years.
Living a lie through out all this madness,
I find it hard to hide my tears.

Watched you discovering just who you are,
And it really made me smile.
You, me and our friends would ride in my car,
That made me happy for a while.
Now you're gone and I don't think you'll return,
But somehow that's okay.
We al had our time and we chose to burn,
Rather than just fade away,