The Old Man's Gait

(album: No Treasure But Hope - 2019)

Neither kind or unkind
Neither absent or present
Just a reflection
It's just in the way we walk

I walk to my father's metre
I walk with the old man's gait
Down past the gasometer
And through the estate

Those miscalculated steps
Now he's not so steady on his pins
Those miscalculations
He was never ready with his affection

He walks to my grandfather's falter
He walks with the old man's gait
Not that he ever knew him
Just some guy staring at the school fence

Those miscalculated steps
None of us were so good at sums
Those miscalculations
With never the time to make our corrections

And I lifted you up to get a better view
Your hip pressed against my cheek
And your arm fell over the top of my head
Your fingers playing with my ear
And we looked at the same thing
And you were my boy
And then I sat you on the wall
Leaned down on my elbows to be by your side
And you pointed
And you told me of everything you could see

Those miscalculated steps
None of us were so good at sums
Those miscalculations
With never the time to make our corrections

Neither kind or unkind
Neither absent or present
Just a reflection
It's just in the way we walk