They always prey on women like her
They read self-doubt in the way she walks
He suckered her in with a hollow kind word
Saying ‘I just love the soft way you talk’
‘You won’t leave!’ he’d scream ‘How could you?’
As they replayed the same bloodless fight
Hadn’t seemed long ‘till the joy had left them
And the dark long silence entered their nights
They were going for a meal with her sister
They’d been fighting before leaving home
And he struck her so hard that his palm had blistered
Slap make-up couldn’t hide the bruises on her bones
She left the restaurant table without warning
It was not like her to make a fuss
Saying “You’ll not see me tomorrow morning…
I’m taking the next Brisbane bus
Yeah, I’m leaving on the next Brisbane bus”
There’s vultures waiting on nights like these
For a woman to leave on her own
The car pulled up beside her near a dark grove of trees
The clouds were thick and the night wind groaned

And my body lay broken, naked and alone
The crows pecked out my eyes
And the flesh fell off my bones
I watched it all between the dirt and the sky

And the officers came to drag him out of our home
With cuffs around his wrists
Our neighbours saw him get led off alone
Standing with their hands in fists

They all cried out ‘How could you?’
They know he was looking for me that night
Now watching his pleas from out of the TV
They disbelieved the tears he cried
But I see him squatting in that cold cell
Yeah I watch it all between dirt and sky
Took a random act to curse him to hell
And a stranger done took both our lives Yeah a stranger, he took both our lives
That man he took both our lives