Close As A Whisper (The Gift)

(album: The New Bush - 2006)

I tumbled into life... out on the western line
A simple gathering of melody and rhyme
Written down and twicked a bit
Ink pen on manuscript
Little town Little song
Looking for somewhere to belong
Sat in a bureau drawer
Pulled out then performed
For a governor and mayor
A low clock scratched me down
Next morning we left town
And he was humming as we rode
And I wondered where we'd go
On and on round and round
Far and wide am I bound
I'm a gift I'm a drifter
Always wondering free
On and on like the wind
I am home I am friend
And you'll always be as close
As a whisper to me

Some shear is heading south
Sang me to Jackie How
First time he ever shoved a hundred in a day
I rode the silver rails
I crossed the mountain trails
They sing my story from the cave to Morton Bay
And send me on my way
On and on round and round
Far and wide am I bound
I'm a gift I'm a drifter
Always wondering free
On and on like the wind
I am home, I am friend
And you'll always be as close
As a whisper to me

As Private Monroe gentle sang
I floated over no mans land
I've seen the tears
Of countless lonely sons
I've crossed the raging seas
Wound up in symphonies
Was there in victories
Been song on bended knees
Of just some notes and verse
Nothing more and nothing less
You find me at the stock camp
As their passing out the rum
Out near where I'm from
On and on round and round
Far and wide am I bound
I'm a gift I'm a drifter
Always wondering free
On and on like the wind
I am home, I am friend
And you'll always be as close
As a whisper to me
On and on with this swag
And an old tucker bag
Singing who'll come a Waltz'n matilda
With me!