Like To Say

I’ve seen you now a many a time.
Sitting on the park bench.
With scarf wrapped tight around you.
Just trying to feed the birds.

You come here often with a dime.
To pay for seed by cent.
And that’s just where I found you.
Just a laying in the dirt.

I tried to call a help for you.
You cried me not to go.
For you had a story to tell.
So somebody would know.

When lass you stepped up to the line.
And donned a uniform.
You marched against the greatest crime.
Long before I was born.

At first I thought you a war nurse.
But accent that allayed.
Hailed from a cold Siberian town.
A sniper’s scope your way.

Oh, what a dark world, of beauty and of pain.
You loved once, and went to war, and never saw again.
Many a year you spent alone, remembering his face.
Now in my arms, you see his smile, is what you like to say.

I have spent many an hour.
Staring at the glass.
It stares right back and I recall.
As silence fell that morn.

In my stomach I feel sour.
Thinking of that lass.
Who so old there took a fall.
Told me of love forlorn.

Looking through a picture book.
Photos of years long gone.
I saw a face can’t be mistook.
From 1951.

A man arriving in New York.
A man from Russia born.
My grandfather I recognized.
To a new nation sworn.

Somewhere within the depth of time.
A love lost long ago.
A woman who he left behind.
Who dearly he loved so.

Oh, what a dark world, of beauty and of pain.
You loved once, and went to war, and never saw again.
You mourned the loss, but still moved on, coming to this place.
Now in my arms, I see his smile, is what I like to say.

And now that I am growing old.
I understand the truth.
That love once lost finds its way home.
Before the sun is set.

My young love lost as I’ve been told.
Not seen since in my youth.
I see her standing at the throne.
And I will join her yet.

Oh, what a dark world, of beauty and of pain.
I loved once, and loved again, and never saw a war.
I lived life, it led me here, but no longer can I stay.
Love while you’re young, don’t linger on, is what I like to say.

Oh, what a dark world, of beauty and of pain.
Love while you’re young, don’t linger on, is what I like to say.