No More Running Through the Darkness

Verse 1

She met him where the highway bends,

Where the blacktop meets the plain,

He had a pistol in his pocket

And a lifetime full of pain.

He wore a coat of faded leather,

Had a scar across his brow,

And she knew that she should leave him,

But she couldn't tell him how.

Verse 2

He'd robbed a bank in Gundagai,

Left a man beside the road,

Had the lawmen on his shadow

Everywhere he'd ever rode.

But he spoke to her so softly,

Like the world had done no wrong,

And she fell in love with a man

Who was never hers for long.

Chorus

Oh, they'll meet above the clouds,

Where the rain don't ever fall,

Where the lost don't have to run no more,

And the dead don't hear the call.

He'll lay his gun beside him,

She'll let her long hair down,

And they'll have all the years they never had

Somewhere above the clouds.

Verse 3

She would wait beside the window

When the moon was hanging low,

Hear the horses on the gravel,

Feel her heart begin to go.

He would stay until the morning,

Then he'd kiss her at the gate,

Saying, "Darling, if I had my way,

I wouldn't make you wait."

Verse 4

But the papers told their stories,

And the constables came round,

Asking if she'd seen a stranger

Who'd been moving through the town.

She would look them in the eye

And say she'd nothing much to tell,

Then she'd kneel beside her bed at night

And pray he'd fare him well.

Chorus

Oh, they'll meet above the clouds,

Where the rain don't ever fall,

Where the lost don't have to run no more,

And the dead don't hear the call.

He'll lay his gun beside him,

She'll let her long hair down,

And they'll have all the years they never had

Somewhere above the clouds.

Verse 5 – Slow, mournful

They caught him near the river

On a cold and moonless night,

He was wounded in the shoulder

But he put up one last fight.

And they took him into town

With iron shackles on his hands,

While she stood behind the courthouse

As the judge read his demands.

Verse 6

He looked at her before they led him

Through the doorway to his fate,

And she tried to say she loved him,

But the words came out too late.

So he smiled as if to tell her

There was nothing left to fear,

And she watched the man she loved walk off

As the bells rang in the year.

Instrumental Break – Acoustic guitar and harmonica

Verse 7 – Quiet, reflective

She lived on past the winter,

Past the years that turned her grey,

Kept his letters in a tin box

And his memory every day.

Sometimes she'd walk down to the river

Where the old gum shadows fell,

And she'd talk to him in whispers

Of the life they knew so well.

Verse 8

When her time came in the springtime,

With the blossoms on the ground,

She closed her eyes beside the window

As the evening light came down.

And the nurse who sat beside her

Said she smiled before she died,

Like she'd seen somebody waiting

On the other side.

Final Chorus – Full, emotional vocals

Now they're meeting above the clouds,

Where the rain don't ever fall,

Where the lost don't have to run no more,

And there's no law left at all.

He's laid his gun beside him,

She's let her long hair down,

And he's holding her the way he always dreamed

Somewhere above the clouds.

No more running through the darkness,

No more waiting by the door,

No more counting all the minutes

Till they can't be counted more.

And if love can make a heaven

Out of all we've lost and found,

Then they'll spend the rest of forever

Somewhere above the clouds.

Outro – Soft acoustic guitar

He was never much for praying,

She was never much for doubt,

But the world kept them apart down here...

And heaven let them out.

End – Guitar fades