The Unspoken Yard

[Verse 1]
You saw Liam Thursday by the penny-slot machines,
His hands pale with the same chalk dust from the crags at seventeen.
You bought him a pint of Stones, he bought you one right back,
A fault line slowly grinding down a well-worn, familiar track.

[Chorus]
And oh, the clumsy kindness, the words you didn't mean to find,
Like offering a fossil to a man going blind.

[Verse 2]
You asked about his father, the new quarry-face demands,
The pint glass sweats a perfect ring between your trembling hands.
He talked about the weather, a coming fall of snow,
A five-year conversation in a minute, soft and low.

[Chorus]
And oh, the clumsy kindness, the words you didn't mean to find,
Like offering a fossil to a man going blind.

[Bridge]
That August on the moorland, the heather turning brown,
You said "I think you're the only bloke who's never let me down."
The wind just snatched it from you, he didn't turn his head,
And you're still stood there waiting.

[Chorus]
For all the clumsy kindness, the words you'll never find,
Like offering a fossil to a man going blind.

[Outro]
Just the mizzle on the ginnel, the slow erosion home.