for the last tommy - or - a patch in time

recent thoughts do fade away,
i struggle to remember yesterday,
what i ate for breakfast or where i went,
memories sucked from an old mans mind vent,
yet though i may be old and frail,
i will always remember my time at passchendale.

92 years came and went,
since that deadly place, that we were sent,
my mind see's my old friends clear as day,
i can recall the second, they went away,
one man crying for the love of his mother,
another dying in the arms of his brother,
yet though i may be old and frail,
i will always remember my time at passchendale.

i made it mine, that place of flanders mud,
that was softened with so much english blood,
i may forget where i have been,
but that place tattoed in my minds great scene,
yet though i may be old and frail,
i will always remember my time at passchendale.

i know as i lay my head down to die,
my guilt made me try my best for every guy,
who fell in those days instead of me,
taken so young, no chance of life theyll see,
yet though i may be old and frail,
i will never forget my brothers at passchendale.

c.d.lee