Moving to the frozen North where the shades of grey and the rising steam from the Aire valley erase all the memories of past folly.

Grey thunder clouds were out the water was high
Between the burdocks I saw you go by
To morning service called so eager followed I

I sat in silence rapt from nine until noon
My knuckles whitened on the back of the pew
You turned your face away the whole long morning through

Sunlight and shadows round your fingertips played
I nudged the parson and asked him your name
How far you'd travelled and how long you were staying

Far beyond the dull horizon the colliers curse and call
The water spills from the peaks and hills and down to the North Sea pours
On the stacks and staithes and the dockyard cranes and the railway yards it falls
And it's cold as the stones of the Roman wall

The leaves were yellow and the season had turned
Bedecked the altar boys in garlands and ferns
And wicker women in the blackened stubble burned

But I'd been watching I waited I bided my time
Bit off my fingernails and sharpened my scythe
So that when you called your harvest home I could gather mine

I filled the chapel from the vaults to the weather vane
With bribes and promises burned candles all day
But smiling sweetly still you sent me on my way

Like three great blisters on the skyline sit
Three grey sisters as the morning lifts
And in the black sky the spiral-climbing steams change shape and shift

And to those three grey sisters as the morning lifts
Vane Tempest blows a parting kiss
As over Kellingley Colliery and Ferrybridge
And in the black sky the spiral-climbing steams change shape and shift

Chords:
Intro. Abm Gb Abm E F F#
Verse B F# B E F# B (E F F#)
Middle 8 B E B F# B E F F#
Chorus B E F F# B E
Ending B E F F# B E Abm E F F#
             B E F F# B E F#
             B E F F# B E F# Abm