Can you name this song by Eric Bogle ?
It's memorial day in the U.S. and I thought that this song by Eric Bogle was most apt.
Well old friend here I am,
I told you I'd be back
As usual mate, I'm bloody late
It's seventy five years down the track.
For the last time here I stand
In this familiar foreign land
Back with the mates I left behind
Fixed forever in their time.
And of all the ghosts of all the boys
Who haunt this lonely place
Only one of them wears your cheery grin
And your Cockney joker's face
When I drown in old and bloody dreams
Of helpless young men's dying screams
I feel your hand give my arm a shake
And your voice says 'Steady mate'
And the country that you died for mate,
You would not know it now
The future that we dreamed of mate,
Got all twisted up somehow.
The peace that we were fighting for,
The end to stupid, senseless war,
So it couldn't happen to our kids,
Well old mate it did.
But thank you for the gift of years,
And the flame that brightly burned,
For the time you bought and the lessons taught,
Though often wasted and unlearned,
'Lest we forget' cry the multitude,
As if I ever, ever could.
So forgive an old man's tears,
And thank you for the years.


