Cattle and Cane

I recall a schoolboy coming home
through fields of cane
to a house of tin and timber
and in the sky
a rain of falling cinders
from time to time
the waste memory-wastes
I recall a boy in bigger pants
like everyone
just waiting for a chance
his father's watch
he left it in the showers
from time to time
the waste memory-wastes
I recall a bigger brighter world
a world of books
and silent times in thought
and then the railroad
the railroad takes him home
through fields of cattle
through fields of cane
from time to time
the waste memory-wastes
the waste memory-wastes
further, longer, higher, older

_______________________________________________________

Cattle and Cane song lyrics by the FNQ born lush, Grant W McLennan of the Go-Betweens. A friend of mine, actually. He goes home every year to the Atherton Tablelands for the picnic races there. The house in the photo above is not actually on the Atherton Tablelands, but in the foothills. It is an old sugarcane farm on the way to my brothers house. Every time I went past it, I would break into "Cattle and Cane" and think of Grant. It's my favourite Go-Betweens song ever, and actually, I sing it a lot even here in Tokyo. It totally evokes a touch of homesickness for people living far away from their childhood in the Queensland tropics. You can listen to it here.

Martine wrote this on January 20, 2005 3:47 PM