The Lost Soul, The Meth Head & Sara

Imagine, if you can, this lost soul, sitting out on a motel porch, sucking back cancer sticks, sipping cheap scotch, watching three out of place palm trees sway. He's listening to music you see, losing himself in memories of days gone by, back when they laughed at what could make a decent human cry. So there's this lost soul, sitting, thinking, smoking and a song begins in his ears, strikes a chord deep down in the space where a fella's heart oughta be. So he lights another smoke, stands and looks towards the road heading east, and quite a major road it is too. The only major road round these parts anyway. So he puts one foot in front of the other, not really knowing when he's gonna stop, not really knowing where he's going. He could just be going to the shop, to get a bottle of coke, or he might be walking all the way to Sydney, he just wouldn't be able to tell you if you were to pull him up and ask him.

So thats how that single lost souls journey began right? As it turned out he didn't stop at the shop, no, he just kept walking. Made it five kays up the highway, heading east, in the middle of the night, when this car pulled up and the driver offered him a lift. The driver himself was heading to Sydney, and the drivers girlfriend was going with him, so long as things remained peaceable. So the lost soul, drifting through the country, rode with the two all the way to central New South Wales. They parted ways at a small country pub, the driver kept on driving and the girlfriend kept on loving the driver. A few days later the news showed pictures of a car crash in Sydney. The driver was no longer driving, the girlfriend would love for the rest of time.

This lost soul, this drifter that he be, he bumped into an old friend, they'd smoked the odd spliff back in those crazy old white washed days when the sun took forever to disappear. The old friend was on the ice pretty bad these days, the crystal meth controlling his existence. They chatted, the lost soul and the meth head, having grown distant, seperate lives since they'd parted ways, the only thing they really had to talk about were memories, but the meth heads face was as fucked as his mind and the lost soul had trouble concentrating, want more and more to get out, make tracks, maybe north this time, and see a girl, an old friend Sara. The barman called last drinks and the meth head made his way to one more fix, just one more fucking whack man.

After resting tired feet, the lost soul, our humble drifter friend, he made his way north, up to Queensland, up through the inland way, crossing the border at Heble, where the emu stands staunch in the little general corner store. He hit the coast at Rocky, kept heading north till he passed the shell servo on the southern edge of a town he once knew well enough.

Sara, like everyone else, had changed, though the years had been kind to her. They'd had a little something back in the day, the first time the lost soul had returned to Mackay, way back before his soul was truly lost, back when he was just a confused kid hitching round the traps. Sara remembered it too, but nowadays everything was slower, no whirlwind romances any more.

She asked him to marry her one night, a Tuesday night I think it was, after a feed of fish and chips from the shop by the gooseponds. The lost soul explained he couldn't bring anything to such a situation, he was tired, lost in thought to often, never sure what day of the week it was. He'd found himself a job at a local petrol station, but simply because he'd never studied further to land a job he'd really appreciate. Sara soothed him, told him it was alright, that love'd get them through, but thats where they hit a real snag see? Cause love had nothing to do with it, and both of them knew, to be sure. It was just the fact that comfort had grown over years, many with a distance spreading the width of the sunburnt county, right, and you know what effect distance has on the heart. So they knew each other, had this trusty kind of bond, maybe at best an uneasy friendship, but a wild passion when their seperate minds combined. It was just that with the years speeding by, they both were getting on a bit and who wants to spend these earthly years all alone?

But the lost soul couldn't do it, no, he was too tired, to confused about where everything went wrong, and Sara, being the lady she was, well he just couldn't do it, ya know. So he rolled up his bluey and once more set off, headed south again, then no doubt he'd be off west before to long.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5-sPJSX2hg