The Weight Of Words Lyrics - Town Pants

By the time you read this letter 

I'll be far away from here 

I've left to find my fortune 

Outside of the weir 

The world is not this island 

To dig and die for gold 

And how can I stay here 

With Australia full of gold 

Father won't forgive me 

So Mother, don't you cry 

For one day I'll return 

With my head held high 

For now keep that book 

Its words pulled my bowstring 

And when I read them 

For me changed everything 

Words on a page can weigh a ton 

When the past is not undone 

I stowed away on a ship 

That sailed the western sea 

City to the outback 

Was all I'd read it'd be 

The war broke out in '41 

I joined like every other son 

And came back from Rabaul 

With my life and an empty gun 

When I came back to Canada 

There were voices in my head 

They spoke not with words 

But with the faces of the dead 

The strongest river current 

Can change its flow by force 

But words brought me to the war 

And changed my path and course 

Now as an old man 

I think of all the things I've done 

'Cause I've lived my whole life 

Like a bullet from a gun 

I look back at myself 

And when I was 21 

And when I'd read that book 

Of foreign lands and all or none 

I wonder if my heirs 

Will think of what I've done 

And if the sins of the father 

Will visit the son