Old Joe

Old Joe who lives on our street he is an Englishman
His father fought in the war in Ireland he was a Black and Tan
In nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty eighty five years ago
His Dad long with the departed and time catching up on Joe.

Two years before he was born his Father left the British Army in nineteen twenty three
A traumatized and shattered man Joe told his story to me
Badly wounded in an ambush and though he made a full recovery
Of the ghosts of war that haunted him till death he was not free.

His unhappy time in Ireland left him with a mental scar
He suffered from lingering depression the side effects of war
Joe never joined the army much better sense he had
He hates war with good reason for what it did to his dad.

He lives distant from England and his Hometown of Blackpool
The place where he first saw light of day and where he went to school
The old Town on the coastal lands by the cold Irish sea
That he still often talks of but never more may see.

Joe still talks of his father with teardrops in his eyes
He says my dad was a good man and he was kind and wise
But war it left it's mark on him one of the many who
Never fully did recover from the traumas he had been through.