22nd February: a song of remembrance

For and from

Child with ringlets in your hair,

young man on a Norton;

Grocer serving all the customers,

and a father in his garden

Your mother at the pot-bank, your brother down the mine,

your cousins lost in Flanders Fields long before their time

Child with ringlets in your hair,

young man on a Norton;

Grocer serving all the customers,

and a father in his garden

Your sweetheart died in childbirth, her baby never cried;

You buried them on St Stephen's Day, and you added her name to mine.

In grief you left to fight the war and travel far and wide;

Your comrades died in Singapore, and your silence was their shrine

Child with ringlets in your hair,

young man on a Norton;

Grocer serving all the customers,

and a father in his garden

Your life was full of duty, but your heart was full of song;

I feel you all around me, although you've journeyed on.

I never said I love you, but I miss you all the time;

You left too fast to say goodbye, but I carry your life in mine

Child with ringlets in your hair,

young man on a Norton;

Grocer serving all the customers,

and a father in his garden;

my father in his garden:

My father.