Union Songs
View from a Wooden Chair
A song by Lachlan Hurse and Sue Monk ©1996 Lachlan Hurse and Sue Monk
Young girls play hopscotch on a broken path
Ageing soot blackens old brick walls
Old car tyre leans at the corner
Stray dog barks at grim passer-by
Bicycles line up at the local store
Factories crumble behind rusting iron
Graffiti grows on the railway bridge
Worker in overalls walks on home
A derelict house slumps to one side
Poster peels on a bolted gate
Its faded but not forgotten
"An injury to one is an injury to all"
Car rattles along with broken exhaust
Clouds hurry past in the driving wind
"Is this all there is?" asks the passer-by
"No" said the worker
"Its just a view from a wooden chair"
Notes
Many thanks to Sue and Lachlan for permission to use this song about which they write:
"The lyrics came out of an experience at a job one of us had, where the provided seating was a wooden stool, while the bosses had comfortable padded chairs. It also is a reference to a wooden bench seat that was located on a busy street corner in West End, an inner city suburb of Brisbane where older people and down-and-outs used to regularly sit and watch the passers-by. (The bench has now been removed along with other changes to the suburb.) The musical style draws on Brazilian bossa nova style."Find more of Sue and Lachlan's work in this collection
visit their web site at: Jumping Fences
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