Before I reach
That lonely place,
Let me reside
While I’m alive,
Close by her side
In that embrace
Of each day’s best,
Which lets me hear
That joyous fest
Of her voice near,
Alluding to be clear
Love will survive,
Until I am no longer!
Before I reach
That lonely place,
Let me reside
While I’m alive,
Close by her side
In that embrace
Of each day’s best,
Which lets me hear
That joyous fest
Of her voice near,
Alluding to be clear
Love will survive,
Until I am no longer!
What purpose
Holds justify,
To impair
Or destroy,
To slander
Or denigrate,
And cravenly cover
Feign apathy,
As a lowly guise
Believe be disguise,
For their ill placed words!
Nobody’s here
Or now remain,
Who can recall
A time you’d hear
That lonely call,
Of a wailing train…
Nobody hears
Of fallen men,
In silent fear
Chose to board,
A moving train
Taunt be scored,
By razzing peers…
Nobody recalls
The men aboard,
Living in tatters
Said their afford,
From 30’s disaster
To ride the rails,
Desperate to find
That new deal bail…
Nobody tended
To marginal man,
And few could hear
His hopeless stand,
As he rode the rails
In a half baked plan,
Save chance survive
By toil of some kind,
But to thus stay alive
In the terrible thirties!
ode to Uncle Joseph Bernier
of Valleyfield and Huntington PQ
imperiled by 1930’s depression
© Jean-Jacques Fournier