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Young ambition moved into 'just a first home'
They'd move onwards and upwards when good times came.
But instead the war came.
Their daughter drove an ambulance through the streets of Hull
Standing more than sitting. She wasn't very tall.
No lights of course, but it wasn't hard to see,
For fire lights streets well, though hearts were dark and cold.
The true devastation a secret in the propaganda war
"A Northern Port was Bombed" Was all they told.
While the daughter swept blood from the back of the van
The son sailed under a Dutch flag - of the crew the only English man.
"A ship [anonymous] was torpedoed off the coast of Norway"
No word from the son, but "The crew were captured," was the text
Relief, not drowned. "There was an English officer aboard" No name.
Just supposition. Dread. Then "The English officer was shot," came next.
Now just vain hope. And nothing more came.
No information - in the propaganda war.
No information - in forty years of 'peace'. No name.
Young ambition stalled for their remaining forty years
They daren't move onwards and upwards - so stayed in the make do home
Because no-one ever named the English officer - so maybe it wasn't him
Maybe one day, he would come home.
Now just the daughter's left to wonder (why couldn't they ever tell us?) alone.
Penny Grubb
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