The Gift Of Years

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Well, old friend, here I am, I told you I'd be back
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And as usual mate, I'm bloody late; it's 75 years down the track
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For the last time here I stand in this familiar foreign land
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Back with the mates I left behind, fixed forever in their time


[Verse 2]
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And all the ghosts, of all the boys who haunt this lonely place
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Only one of them wears your cheery grin & your Queensland joker's face
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But I drown in all the bloody dreams of helpless young men's dying screams
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I feel your hand give my arm a shake & your voice say "steady, mate"


[Verse 3]
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And the country that you died for, mate, you would not know it now
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The future that we dreamed of, mate, got all twisted up somehow
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The peace that we were fighting for, the end to stupid senseless war
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So it couldn't happen to our kids - well old mate, it did


[Verse 4]

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But thank you for the gift of years & the flame that brightly burned
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For the time you bought & the lessons taught, tho' often wasted & unlearned
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"Lest we forget" cry the multitudes, as if I ever ever could
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So forgive an old man's tears, & thank you for the years