Old mate Miles

Old mate Miles loved Sunday arvos

rain hail or shine

at Fisherman's Wharf

beer on the boardwalk

where the locals hung out

to bask in jugs of sunshine



Old mate Miles loved 80's cock rock

Barnsie & Farnsie even in the 90's

belting out over the broadwater

as the shirtless surfies

threw tinnies & curses

at the boats brimful with revellers



Old mate Miles loved mosh-pits

but not when the bouncers brawled

with our sun-bleached mates

leaving the glassies to clean up

the blood & spew

where a stagediver crashed

in a fleeting brush with fame



Old mate Miles loved XXXX bitter

the eight-deep crowded line-ups

with harassed bartenders

going like the clappers

where Cupid took aim

& Miles was game

for the suggestive vertical smile

of a moonlight frolic in the sand



Old mate Miles loved beer & girls

he liked wolf-whistling

drinking with his mates

every Sunday arvo

at Fishies

& when we said



"Corr there goes old mate Miles


with that sheila the lucky bastard!"



we didn't really think it through



'Cos the truth is folks

what happened to old mate Miles

robs me of all rhyme & cliché



you see old mate Miles

didn't get lucky

he got knifed in the back



& his girly

didn't get what she was asking for

she didn't get what she was asking for



but that was years ago

now Miles has more mates than ever

Fisherman's Wharf has been redeveloped

& his family

run a traffic light charity

for the protection

of Gold Coast beaches

now he's got a boardwalk

that stretches……

                              …….& stretches

'cos old mate Miles

had a lot of mates after that