That I happened to a town once
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Is of no consequence to my story
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But i burned all of my diaries
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The day a town happened to me
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I guess I should've called you
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But payphones there were just so hungry
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I was busy writing headlines
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Like 'postbox eats the hand of lady'
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Who fixes stamps to cutout competitions
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She kisses each letter she mails
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This is how i found Manilla, Manilla New South Wales
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Cold beer for welcome stranger
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Choose to refuse and so politely
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Is to risk the danger
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That they'll raise the kind of hell known only by the New South Welsh
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To be heard along the Namoi banks
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And out across the distant ranges
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You've had so many lovers
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Your brothers would be so proud of thee
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But one way of another they've drifted to be beside a sea
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While the information clock has tied a knot
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With both it's hands and holds us by our tails
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We're all bound by time to Manilla, Manilla New South Wales
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Can you pick a grave for me in the ruins of cordial factories
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Where flavoured flowers grow pirouetting in cul-de-sacs
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Miss the sound of clickety clacks on tracks that trains won't go
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And out through windows....
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The shop keepers gape out over the landscape
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They're praying for sales
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Religion makes more sense in Manilla, Manilla New South Wales
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Here's to the folk behind fences
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Furtively readjusting denches
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A chorus of corellas
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Form clouds over saturday benches
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Where old men sit and lick tobacco papers
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They look like a harmonica band
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As the sun tiptoes down Manilla St
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And slowly comes to land
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I may make me a home in Manilla, Manilla New South Wales
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Manilla NSW
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Darren Hanlon |