[mr_blue_owl]

BLOOD AND TEARS

An old man cries, an old man bleeds
For happiness he’d sowed the seeds
Blood and tears for the nothing years
When nothing grew except for weeds
---
The old man sits at the table
Lifts a note from the faded mail
And his mind drifts back in time
A padded cell, a racking wail

‘That was ever my true friend
Curled up howling on the floor
They had thrown away the key
After slamming shut the door’

He feels tears run down his face
As he sniffs a perfumed page
And his mind drifts back in time
A pretty girl quite young of age

‘That was ever my true love
I could not have loved her more
But she left without goodbye
Although her love had gone before’

His face is frowning as he holds
The crested envelope still sealed
And his mind drifts back in time
A muddy trench, a foreign field

‘That was ever our true cause
The resentment that we bore
As so many comrades perished
In that pointless bloody war’

He sweeps aside the letter
A splinter spears his thumb
And his mind drifts back in time
A little boy, a back street slum

‘That was ever my pure hell
Locked behind the cellar door
A childhood full of misery
Sleeping on the pebbled floor’


And he sees there at his feet
A dark stain of blood and tears
And his mind drifts back in time
Faceless people, wasted years

‘That was ever my sad life
It should have been much more
But now I’ve left it far too late
To try and even up the score’
---
Old men bleed and old men cry
They fear the time that’s passing by
Blood and tears for the living years
When living dreams fade out and die

And he lays down his head
On a pillow of paper memories