Sweethearts
by cricketjeff on July 27, 2010. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
In the village where they started she stood barefoot on the floor
In the house her mother left her with her roses round the door
On the Five Oh Four from London he was sitting with a book
As the valleys watched him passing he acquired a distant look
There are memories between them reaching back to other years
When two children watched their parents face a future full of fears
Under distant droning bombers the horizon turned to blood
But the coal trucks never faltered in their black and dusty flood
While their fathers fought for country under miles of mountain grass
They were learning to be lovers when they should have been in class
While their Mothers made munitions working shifts for extra pay
They walked hills and found each other in some local farmer’s hay
As the taxi finds her number she can hardly bear to wait
And she holds her breath in silence when she hears the creaking gate
He remembers all her secrets and the key’s behind the tile
As he tries to find the keyhole he puts on a nervous smile
Though they’re older and far greyer, that’s in other people eyes
To each other they’re still youngsters who’re ignoring all that’s wise
On the day that he was drafted they exchanged their solemn vows
Though the chapel was a farmyard and the witnesses were cows
To the sounds of chickens laying on that summer afternoon
They gave vent to all their feelings on a frenzied honeymoon
There were miles and years before them but young lovers never care
They were certain of the future and the life that they would share
She was nursing wounded sailors when she found another life
And a man from Aberystwyth changed a sister to a wife
While her sweetheart found his measure in a lonely Belgian girl
Who was swept up by his accent and they married in a whirl
Now that both of them are widows and they’ve found the internet
It is time to find their childhoods and to lose an old regret
English