Friend lyrics

Do you remember
That wild stretch of land
With the lone tree guarding the point
From the sharp-tongued sea?

The fort we built out of branches
Wrenched from the tree
Is dead wood now
The air that was thick with the whirr of
Toetoe spear succ*mbs at last to the grey gull's wheel

Oyster-studded roots
Of the mangrove yield no finer feast
Of silver-bellied eels, and sea-snails
Cooked in a rusty can

Allow me to mend the broken ends
Of shared days:
But I wantеd to say
That the tree we climbed
That gavе food and drink
To youthful dreams, is no more
Pursed to the lips her fine-edged
Leaves made whistle - now stamp
No silken tracery on the cracked
Clay floor
Friend
In this drear
Dreamless time I clasp
Your hand if only to reassure
That all our jewelled fantasies were
Real and wore splendid rags

Perhaps the tree
Will strike fresh roots again:
Give soothing shade to a hurt and
Troubled world