(P.Mark)
From the album Gravity

Closing time in a bar downtown
Me and the boys from the mine
Were still hanging around
Drinking the fog of our little town away

A silhouette crossed the room
Through the dark and din
He saw me just as I saw him
Then a light went on
The friend gone astray

Been a decade or more since we shook hands
He said he’s in town for the night, then he’s off again
His clothes showed
Just how far a man can get away

We talked small talk about the wife and kids
Not a word about history or the strange things he did
How he’d come to be
My friend gone astray

He caught my arm the parking lot
Shook his head and said how sorry he was
He said, “There were so many times
I wanted to help you out some way”

He said, “If it ain’t too late maybe I could lend a hand
To get you back on track, man I’m still your man
I’d do anything
For my friend gone astray”
I hear my wife rustling in the kitchen
I’m at the mirror for the morning shave
She’s packing up lunches
It’s just one more school day

How do your eyes lose sight of something once so dear?
When did that diamond in your eye
Just disappear?
You just wake up and you’re staring back
At the friend gone astray