Undeveloped Film

G
Sorting through my things the other day
                                  C                   G
I found an old film camera that I thought I'd thrown away

But there it was covered in dust
                                       C                  G
I checked it and the film inside still had a few pictures left

So I just snapped it off and then
                                              C             G
I found a place on the high street that could still develop them

I dropped them off and clean forgot,
                                    C                   Em
It wasn't until this morning that I picked the pictures up


                            Am
And there before my eyes in vivid colour
C               G             Em
Pictures of her stood smiling bold on the edge of a cliff by the sea
       Am
On the south coast somewhere,
C                 G                   C
Wind in her hair, wrapped against the cold


G
There were many other pictures in the set,
                               C                     G
Most of them were taken in the first months after we met

When we were lovers like happy drunks
                                   C                    G
Stumbling for each other with each step, each breath in our lungs

Pictures of nights from soho bars
                                  C                   G
A weekend in the country when we borrowed my sister's car,

Her naked, serene on a hotel bed
                           C                   Em
Smiling at the camera, her beauty like a word unsaid


                                Am
And there before my eyes on the glossy paper
C              G            Em
Quiet whispers of something I had lost or put aside
        Am
For the longest time
    C                 G                 C
The hope that I might find some kind of peace


Em                    D
Oh oh oh where did it go go go
          Em           Ab7
I used to know exactly where I kept it
Em                          D
There right there under the stairs oh please
          Em                       Ab7
Darling I swear swear swear that's where I left it
Em                            D
Secret little things that you keep locked away
     Em                        Ab7                             Em
In a small wooden box that you barely even mention to yourself
                 D                                Em
It's not exactly hope, nothing quite as simple as youth
                           Ab7              C
Perhaps it's just a way of looking past the truth
                  D
We're all fading away
    Ab7                                            Em               C
The truth I can see in the very last frame of that long lost roll of film
             D                                        Ab7
A picture of me, a young man holding a camera up to a mirror


    Em                           Am
And there before my eyes in that old reflection
  C           G                   Em
A declaration bold: We won't stay gold

All that's left of her and the rest
     Am                  C           G             C        G
Is a small locked box of undeveloped film and photographs