Blood and Tears (Revised)

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