Anthracite

This old man looks at me

Sittin in his doorway in Ipswich

A cold night for him but he still smiles

I give him 3 dollars for a coffee

Its not enough for a beer

Just a hot drink and maybe yesterdays pie

For 22 days I see him and smile back

And give him 3 dollars each time

For a hot drink and maybe a pie

He is not a burden to anyone

And his stories are deeper than the shop owner

He tells me of his life and his unseen sacrifice

So I give him 3 dollars

Enough for a coffee but not a beer

Coz beer round here is 4 dollars

Every night he is in the doorway

Sheltering and telling me

I’m ok boy, just corker

So I give him 3 dollars

Enough for a coffee but not a beer

One day I am sad, he is not there but its later in the day

So I go for a walk and stop up the road

To watch the footy and have a beer

And there is the old man

Coz the the beer up here is only 3 dollars.

This entry was posted on Sep 16, 2012 at 6:29 am and is filed under Happy little ditties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.