Long way out I rose at dawn, the fields lay pale and watched the roads dissolve to trails The rivers narrowed in the light Then thinned to threads and slipped from sight. Your voice came broken through the line. You said a name, I answered mine. Then something shifted in the air. You called from where I was, not there. I’m a long way out tonight. The Earth reduced to one faint light. No road below, no sky above. One distant point and all I love. I’m a long way out tonight. I watch it fading out of sight. And all the things I thought I knew. Come back as little things you do. Your photograph won’t stay in place. It turns until I lose your face. A pencil rolls across the floor. I push it back, it comes once more. I miss the rain along our street. The Sunday papers at my feet. The yellow bulb outside the hall. Your green coat hanging by the wall. A red lamp flickers by my knee. The dial is reading twenty- I tap the glass and check once more. It drops to twenty-two, then four. The radio gives bits and more. A forecast, then a football score. A woman speaks, then fades away. Six little clicks are all that stay. I’m a long way out tonight. One last light, then out of sight. No road below, no sky above. One dying point and all I loved. I’m a long way out tonight. And soon it too will leave my sight. I think about the things back home. The jobs I left half-done, alone. If you get up, go feed the cat. He’ll scratch the door, you know all that. The back gate bangs when wind's around. I should have planed the damn thing down. There’s milk inside the fridge, I think. Check it first before you drink. Yeah i'm a long way out tonight, lalala, lah, lah-lah-lah, lalala, lah, lah-lah-lah Yeah i'm a long way out tonight, lalala, lah, lah-lah-lah, lalala, lah, lah-lah-lah I press the switch and try once more. The same as twenty times before. The speakers hum, the dials shine. A voice comes faintly down the line. It speaks a name I used to hold. In my own voice, but far too cold. -lah I press the switch and try once more. The same as twenty times before. The speakers hum, the dials shine. A voice comes faintly down the line. It speaks a name I used to hold. In my own voice, but far too cold.
