THE WORDSTITCHER: Poetry and Needlepoint by David Evans

Author:David Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tusitala Press
Published: 2014-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

END SONG

2007, written June 2011

For David Minns, ‘Dilys’. Re-written for Michael Ashwell at his funeral.

A country boy to town once came

Alert to chances there to claim,

His days and weeks were means and ends,

He worked some work and made some friends

Where good and ill hold equal sway

Most Englishmen can make their way

The tears and smiles that mark all time

Marked his, but to his own design

It seemed the sun shone every day

Our accidental friend heard played

The music whose gay dance ran on

And on; the times their own sweet song

Sometimes a famine, then a feast

Time proves itself a hungry beast

Its appetite has not known fast

It gorges ‘til the very last

Thus came one raw and painful day

When time could only tide obey:

A short life in the scale of things

But one borne high on fancy’s wings

This child of England went away

With no great fuss and no delay;

But great the grief when we heard say

A son of England died today

His easy-come brought come-what-may,

The piper left and took his pay

No rhymes, no reasons, mere words pall …

There’s such a chill without a shawl

No gourmet banquet at the end

It was the best that make could mend;

That once quick pulse, now cold remains,

Became feast for eternal flames

Hark! Heaven’s carillons have rung

And flights of angels greetings sung

To hail the friend we lost today:

Catch as catch can. Make haste, make hay …

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