The Forsaken Man

Songbirds pipe their melodies On green clad boughs of leafy trees And cattle chew their cud at ease By shady hedge in lush green leas. And multicoloured butterflies Flit to and fro in sunny skies And skylark pipes his merry Lay On this bright evening in late May. Beside his porch door old Ned stood Listening to birds sing in the wood Old Ned a well built loner type Thoughtful and sad faced smoked his pipe. A luckless sort of man poor Ned With silver hair on balding head A pensioner in his sixty ninth year With bright grey eyes bedimmed with tears. And all around the voice of bliss The sound of wildborn happiness The pleasant scent like sweet perfume Of glowing wildflowers in their bloom. But old Ned felt aloof from this His heart was touched by loneliness He felt in sad reflective mood The side effects of solitude. His mind went back in years and time When he was young and in his prime He had his wife and Tim their boy And living life to him meant joy. With pretty wife and growing son Ned felt like God's own chosen one And gift of happiness he knew A gift enjoyed by very few. Ned worked to earn a livelihood As a tree planter in State owned wood And tree planting is no easy job For a man to earn his living bob. The work was hard and the hours were long But Ned was young and his back was strong And he laboured for the take home pay With bended back ten hours a day. And though planting of young forest trees Is toilsome work as hard can be Yet not even work of the hardest kind Is hard on man with happy mind. But happiness can oft be like a flower That bloom and glow in Summer hour That quickly age and fade away And lose it's petals and decay. And happiness with Ned had such brief stay It ended on an August day When he came home early from work and found his wife Nan In bed with her secret love man. The infuriated tree planter lost his head And he dragged the young man from the bed And banged his head ten times or more Against the hard board bedroom floor. From the beating his wife's lover nearly died And Ned in jury court was tried For the attempted murder on the life Of the adulterous lover of his wife The jury returned a verdict of guilty But due to circumstance the judge he acted leniently And sentenced the tree planter from Greenwood Vale To three years in the County jail. Those years in jail were years of woe The days were long and time dragged slow And the nights were dark and drear as hell In his cold and gloomy prison cell. But one hope made bright the melancholy And eased his sense of misery And he waited in expectancy For a visit from his family. But his reconciliation hopes proved all in vain As his wife and son they never came, His wife's lover took them both from him Whilst he was in the County pen. His wife and son he never more did see As they sailed for Land beyond the sea With the man who'd caused him much regret The one he'd almost beat to death. On leafy boughs birds carolling And skylark in the heavens sing And hedgerows buzz with nestling sound And voice of happiness abound. And sleepy fishes bask and dream In sunlit pool bed of the stream And swift winged swallows dip and sail O'er flower decked meads of Greenwood Vale. Golden sunshine and songbird bliss But one lonely heart amidst all this Where joy and peace play major part There's still room left for lonely heart. Beside his porch door old Ned stand With pipe in mouth and stick in hand And teardrops in his eyes of grey On this delightful evening in May.