Highplains Mailman

And when it's dark, he makes the highplains on his quarter horse
With a canvas sack
And all the stars, they bleed together like the flames inside a forge
The Earth is molten - time is stretching on a rack
And yet he labours like a shadow across the meadows of the moon
A diver far beneath the breakers on the rocks
There are more bodies in the snow than there are things that you can know
But he knows you don't have to die to walk the netherworld
It is a cinch to reach if you can climb a rock
Then when the air's too rare to tell and the chill's clear as a bell
He lights a fire and he settles down to read
He pulls a letter from his sack, makes a pillow of his pack
Then hears a wild dog somewhere yanking on a rabbit trap
Going crazy as it dawns on it it's beat

And the mailman reads

"Oh baby take a moment just to think about me
You leave me living like a spinster while you're bachelor free
You're even more of a burden when you ain't here at home
Please, you can't leave me here on my own
I won't find my way
Please, you can't leave me here on my own."

The mailman laughs under his breath and scrutinises the address
Who's the poor drunk that knocked up the Baroness?
Is it the youth that never talks
'Cept out of earshot with his horse
When no one cares less what he thinks or what he says
Or the old drover by the fire
Who quite enjoys the peace and quiet
He's drifting off somewhere beyond the flames
Or the stockman grinding beef between his horseshoe iron teeth
Until the wild dog in the rabbit trap falls quiet
He takes the rifle leaning up against a tree

And the mailman reads

"I had to frighten off your girlfriend with a rock-salt gun
Ain't it enough that I adore you? do you prefer them young?
Is she a schoolgirl or an ostrich? she's all eyelashes and bones

Please, you can't leave me here on my own
I won't find my way
Please, you can't leave me here on my own."

In all his years lugging dispatches from the brides of overlanders
There's been no Dear Johns above 7000 feet
But now here comes a welcome change
He starts to relish the exchange
Until a far-off shot rings brightly through the sleet
Then through the valleys down below and through where no-one ever goes
Spreading thin across the lowlands before vanishing at sea
And now a subatomic silence settles fog-like 'cross the highlands
And it's too cold here now and it's too quiet to sleep

And the mailman reads

"I know now why you languish in your doghouse of stone
To leave me withered so by loneliness I welcome you home
And how could any poor boy leave his Mother in the cold?

You can't leave me here on my own
I won't find my way
Please, you can't leave me here on my own."