Time of Sand Lyrics

Time of Sand

I look through old photographs

Smiling lads in uniform

Tents pitched on hot foreign sands

You never knew what you were doing there

Holding the thin red line of empire

In the years before Suez or rock n roll

You were dodging sniper's bullets

Dodging the knives of thieves

You kept it all hidden

I remember the beach at Broadstairs

We stayed in the guest house on Wrotham Road

You sat in the deckchair on the beach

Coughing up blood over the sand

Mum was a rock as ever

We went back and forth to the hospital

She was holding things together

Always, holding things together

But you kept it all hidden

I wonder how you didn't break sooner

Grappling with PTSD and expectations

I remember later after Bexley and ECT

While both of you could still do things

I treasure a photo of you both on a beach

That I now know to be Ryde

A full circle, unbroken

You did the right things if for the wrong reasons

Smiling on the esplanade

On an island famous for different colours of sand

But that was then hidden

I remember the difficult last years

As the grains were trickling out

Through 5 inches of aneurysm

You held on: stubborn to the end

So when it came, after

Years of gloomy doctors' forecasts

It was almost a surprise

The end of your time of sand

No longer hidden

Ashes to ashes

Dust to dust

I traced your life in sand