Undeveloped Film

G
Sorting through my things the other 
day
I found an old film camera that I 
C                   G
thought I'd thrown away

But there it was covered in dust
I checked it and the film inside 
      C                  G
still had a few pictures left

So I just snapped it off and then
I found a place on the high street 
           C             G
that could still develop them

I dropped them off and clean forgot,
It wasn't until this morning that I 
C                   Em
picked the pictures up


                            Am
And there before my eyes in vivid 
colour
C               G             Em
Pictures of her stood smiling bold 
on the edge of a cliff by the sea
       Am
On the south coast somewhere,
C                 G              
Wind in her hair, wrapped against
     C
 the cold


G
There were many other pictures in 
the set,
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                               C   
Most of them were taken in the 
                  G
first months after we met

When we were lovers like happy 
drunks
Stumbling for each other with each 
C                    G
step, each breath in our lungs

Pictures of nights from soho bars
A weekend in the country when we 
 C                   G
borrowed my sister's car,

Her naked, serene on a hotel bed
                           C     
Smiling at the camera, her beauty 
              Em
like a word unsaid


And there before my eyes on the 
Am
glossy paper
C              G            Em
Quiet whispers of something I had 
lost or put aside
        Am
For the longest time
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The hope that I might find some 
      C
kind of peace


Em                    D
Oh oh oh where did it go go go
          Em           Ab7
I used to know exactly where I kept 
it
Em                          D
There right there under the stairs 
oh please
          Em                       
Darling I swear swear swear that's 
Ab7
where I left it
Em                            D
Secret little things that you keep 
locked away
     Em                       
In a small wooden box that you 
 Ab7                             Em
barely even mention to yourself
                 D                 
It's not exactly hope, nothing 
               Em
quite as simple as youth
                           Ab7     
Perhaps it's just a way of looking 
         C
past the truth
                  D
We're all fading away
    Ab7                            
The truth I can see in the very 
                Em               C
last frame of that long lost roll of
 film
             D                     
A picture of me, a young man 
                   Ab7
holding a camera up to a mirror


    Em                           
And there before my eyes in that old
Am
 reflection
  C           G                   
A declaration bold: We won't stay 
Em
gold

All that's left of her and the rest
     Am                  C        
Is a small locked box of 
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undeveloped film and photographs