The Old Mans Gait

Neither kind or unkind Neither absent or present Just a reflection It's just in the way we walk I walk to my father's metre I walk with the old man's gait Down past the gasometer And through the estate Those miscalculated steps He's not so steady on his pins Those miscalculations He was never ready with his affection He walks with my grandfather's falter He walks with the old man's gait Not that he ever knew him Just some guy staring at the school fence Those miscalculated steps None of us were so good at sums Those miscalculations With never the time to make our corrections And I lifted you up to get a better view Your hip pressed against my cheek And your arm fell over the top of my head Your fingers playing with my ear And we looked at the same thing And you were my boy And then I sat you on the wall Leaned down on my elbows to be by your side And you pointed and you told me of everything you could see Those miscalculated steps None of us were so good at sums Those miscalculations With never the time to make our corrections Neither kind or unkind Neither absent or present Just a reflection It's just in the way we walk