so she borrowed her sister’s studs and swore she'd be back by nine but we took a long drive i suppose it was '85? my mother took me aside sometime before she arrived and cautioned me to be wise cus her father was twice my size and we worked at the factory that’s where debra had caught my eye was told "courting my sonia’s fine but with my youngest, don’t even try" and that was enough for a time but debra still preyed on my mind and once sonia realised she obligingly stood aside and to help us stay out of sight she took out her folks for the night and in case we were compromised we drove out to the countryside and soon were calling each other ‘mine' and learning to read each other’s signs and slowly we came to find just how much our views aligned and i asked if her hair was new and she told me she liked tattoos and we both wore doc martens boots and we hated the beatles too and as it got late she fell into my arms and i felt compelled but i recalled my mum’s counsel and told her that was enough, for now then we took the long way home and my toes curled up as i drove her father will never know love cats on the radio but as we pulled in to her drive a single light turned on inside and although i was petrified i said “no point trying to hide" so i walked with her to her door well that her father did not ignore and though his pride was hurt awful sore he said perhaps he'd been wrong before and so she left home at seventeen and we were engaged by 1990 and married in '91 and two years later, you came along...

sonia's scared she’s growing up she’s unprepared underfed her plate is full she sleeps instead she used to care so much about her sister deb but now she makes her wait behind and skips ahead oh sonia’s scared she’s different sonia’s scared he stays out late he’s never there my darling love our daughter knows its an affair he used to make such a fuss over her groundless fears and then he left her for her best friend and disappeared sonia’s scared she’s wasted years sonia’s scared her visions blurred she’s barely there she found grey hairs she’s growing old it isn’t fair she used to care so much about the things she said but now she drinks so much it speaks for her instead sonia’s scared but she used to be someone who cared about me

i had a dream when i was 9 or 10 and it comes back to me every now and then i was alone in an old town paved with cobblestones and i knew a flood was coming in and i stood underneath the arches and wept cus i was scared and i thought it was the end but footsteps echoed from above i wiped my eyes and i looked up and saw my grandfather towering and he was walking at such pace with a firm look upon his face and i knew that he was there to save me with my grandmother on his arm a look of caution and alarm as she leaned in and brushed my tears away well then the silo must have burst cus all at once i feared the worst i closed my eyes and i was cowering and as i cried and tried to hide my grandad pushed us to the side and saved our lives ever so narrowly and as we watched him swept away i screamed until my heart was drained cus i had never felt that kind of pain it still haunts me to this day and when i woke up i was torn apart by grief and guilt and swore that i would try to see much more of him but ten years passed by so fast and when my grandad really passed i realised what real mourning means and i see flashes of him dead and lying in that hospice bed and how the candles made him look alive and how my father’s own voice broke but i was strong and took a moment to compose myself and process it and how we stayed inside that room each of us sobbing full of booze until the nurse said it was time to go and i thought i was doing well until i snapped the curtain rail (i was so angry and confused) and at his wake i tried to make a joke but it was a mistake and my mum said that she would take me home i wish i had more memories but least i’ll always have that dream and often times that’s how i think of him but then sometimes there are those days where those feelings begin to fade and i remember that i'll never really know if it was him that needed to be saved and i don’t think so much about it but today i am so grateful that i once saw him that way

this is a song for everyone who ever moved away from home and all the ones you left along the wayside just carrying on my son my love my precious one without you the stars are all gone there’s no light left for anyone and i cannot move on well i always knew you would undo whatever plans i had made for you but to just uproot you flew the coop before we could solve our issues but then that’s just you you’d never choose to play at any game which you could lose and you don’t argue there’s no need to not when you drive me to the end of my wits with you oh you see right through my every mood but you never see anything good do you? well i’ll excuse that point of view once you've walked for a mile in my shoes you're so obtuse so absolute you shoot me down in every dispute well that’s nothing new but to tell you the truth i’m through with pretending that i blame you for moving to a place you knew i’d never be able to drive to and visit you but i’m confused just who the hell else can i turn to? so this song’s for you my sun and moon who abandoned me as soon as you could do i shrunk as you grew still i’ll wait for you and someday my chicken will come home to roost