Alan Harrison of the Jumping Hot Club Radio at Hive asked if I would write a poem for his Rememberance Day programme which will be aired from 3 to 5 today.
Picture me and me Granda sharing silence by the fire at 48. Stanhope Road, Jarrow.
3:00 – 5:00 Jumpin Hot Club – Remembrance and Veterans Day Special – with exclusive Readings and Poetry

Radio Player

Me and Granda
(For And To Private James Robert Henderson,
East Yorkshire Regiment, 16985)

sat by the fire as flames grew higher,
us two, hand in glove, with no sign of blood.
No ‘over-the-top,’ seems he just forgot,
when dysentery struck, sitting in a truck.
Couldn’t see aa end, he told an old friend.
One place meant all pain: Salonika’s fame.
Hurt must have remained and then somehow maimed,
burnt his memory, so said nowt to me.

But we could have shared and I would have cared,
shed a child’s tear, not slept through fear,
you choose not to speak, look at the dead street,
this his battle ground with death all around?
Now I try to say just some of the ways
that he said nothing and I speak for him.

Tom Kelly