| With faded ink brandings and covered in dust
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| Forgotten up there on the shelf out of view
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| All these old station journals and chequebooks and such
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| Naming the pound a week people who I knew
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| The names of old ringers, fencers, and breakers
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| Camp cooks and drovers and a housemaid or two
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| Firin' old memories these old station journals
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| Shrouding the names of bush people I knew
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| Names of hard toilers and boozers and brawlers
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| One or two names of good stockmen I knew
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| Indelibly etched in these old station ledgers
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| Abandoned up here, choked in dust out of view
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| Copies of records required by head office
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| Monthly reports from a man held in trust
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| Fragile old entries on musty old foolscap
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| Home for red hornets and red Cooper dust
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| Close to my hand lies a volume of history
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| Listing some names long forgotten, deceased
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| Dead though they might be, today they come back to me reading these pages so
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| dust marked and creased
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| And who in head office devalues this history with which these old records are
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| so richly filled
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| How many shareholders honor the memory of the pound a week stockmen a station
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| colt killed
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| The bush bred young housemaid, where has she wondered
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| And where is the scribe who composed these reports
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| And where is the dogger, the drover, the blacksmith
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| And others who join a parade in my thoughts
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| Yes, these old station records all covered in red dust
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| Vanished from sight here, neglected alone
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| You are fragile yet stronger than any flowery epithets man ever chiseled on
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| marble headstone
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| So I’ll dust you and mend you and care for you now
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| And place you out there at the front in full view
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| And every so often I’ll come by and squander some time with these pound a week
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| people and you |
Song information On this page you can read the lyrics of the song Foolscap Tombstones , by - Slim Dusty. Song from the album The Man Who Steadies The Lead, in the genre Поп