1. The Witnesses

This happened one evening -

as the nation lay sleeping.


Maybe we see things,

Maybe we dream them -


i hid the wiltshire 

i cleaned the holden

and the sun gathered the tears 


i shook the tent down

i placed the phone call

& the wind swept away all the tracks


Relayed through the visions

of writers and newsmen -


oh gaudy gestures

oh lonely nation

i kept her picture

i wrote a letter 

& i kept a midnight vigil.


my wife tracked the footsteps

we found her guilty

and the dish ran away with the spoon


and the moon cast a temporal shadow

and the rock was a twilight cradle


and the anguish cleaved a rip in the wake    

of breathless haunted country.


2. Brown Snake


brown snake, brown snake what did you see?

I saw the dead heart looking at me.


dead heart, dead heart, what did you see?

I saw the footsteps nearing the trees


Footsteps, footsteps, what did you see?

We saw the man of god trying to flee


Child of Oz,

What did you see?

Child of Oz

What did you see?

Child of Oz


I saw that brown snake, 

and I saw the dead heart

I saw the footsteps 

and I saw the God Man.


I saw them all looking at me, as I dragged the sand over me.

Our child of oz, that's what I was, A child of Oz.


3. My Sister In 1994


The years passed,

each laid across

the road out of here.


I took her everywhere,

tied bows in her hair - 

they said I didn't care.


I took her everywhere,

tied bows in her hair - 

they said I didn't care.


Do you hear things in the dark?

- Yes I hear another's voice.

Have you hidden anything?

- Yes I didn't have a choice

Have you eaten everything?

- No I didn't think I could.


But I've told you everything


Nothing lasts, 

just piles upon.


I took her everywhere,

tied bows in her hair - 

they said I didn't care...


4. A Bend In The Terror


You were taken that night

that black river seemed to want you

and now nothing seems right


we were darlings that year

we were darlings that year


You set fires at night

were they signals, or cloaks?


and now nothing seems right


we were darlings that year

we were darlings that year


(i just pray you became free)


5. The Cops


We are taken by the 

nature of our work

to dark places


through country miles, city fringes

and violence


sick moments caught in the wind sheer of fire


when we reached the end there is no conclusion


I track them down

All my life

right or wrong

I track them down

oh my life


the curse of this country is not itself

because this country's not itself


on nights i can't get to sleep

I thumb through her still-open case