The Gift Of Years

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Well, old friend, here I am, I 
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told you I'd be back
                         G         
And as usual mate, I'm bloody late;
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 it's 75 years down the track
                   G             
For the last time here I stand in 
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this familiar foreign land
                       G           
Back with the mates I left behind, 
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fixed forever in their time


[Verse 2]
 D                      G         
And all the ghosts, of all the 
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boys who haunt this lonely place
                             G     
Only one of them wears your cheery 
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grin & your Queensland joker's face
Continúa después del anuncio
                         G         
But I drown in all the bloody 
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dreams of helpless young men's dying
 screams
                         G         
I feel your hand give my arm a 
         A7                 D
shake & your voice say "steady, 
mate"


[Verse 3]
 D                        G       
And the country that you died for,
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 mate, you would not know it now
                       G           
The future that we dreamed of, 
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mate, got all twisted up somehow
                          G        
The peace that we were fighting 
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for, the end to stupid senseless war
                G                 
So it couldn't happen to our kids 
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- well old mate, it did


[Verse 4]

 D                     G          
But thank you for the gift of 
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years & the flame that brightly 
burned
For the time you bought & the 
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lessons taught, tho' often wasted 
    D
& unlearned
                          G        
"Lest we forget" cry the 
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multitudes, as if I ever ever could
                         G      
So forgive an old man's tears, & 
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thank you for the years