LETTERS – We’ll Meet Again

We huddled in the shelters as the bombs dropped down like rain,
And we sang songs like ‘Run, Rabbit, Run’ and, of course, ‘We’ll Meet Again’.
To me they weren’t just songs to sing, they covered fear and pain,
And with thoughts of those far overseas we sang ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

When the sirens sounded ‘All Clear’ we came out into the light,
And saw what was wrecked and missing and lost the previous night.
We loved to play on bombsites and fly imaginary planes,
And on our way back to our house, we sang ‘We’ll Meet Again.

When we emerged one glorious day we found our school had gone,
We boys said ‘Thank You, Adolph’ thinking of a life of fun.
“Don’t worry boys”, our teacher said “for when the war’s done we’ll regain
A brand bright, shiny new school, then we growled ‘We’ll meet Again’.

Our Dad was serving far away, letters few and far between,
And we couldn’t wait till he came back and we could hear of what he’d seen.
We’d hear his wondrous stories when he came back home again,
And sometimes we’d shed a wistful tear when we sang ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

We’d never seen bananas, ate no sweets, queued in the rain
With Mam for tiny rations, feeling hungry was a nagging pain.
But she said “Just count your blessings, kick your trouble down the drain,
It’ll all be ‘milk and honey’ when, one day, we meet again.”

One day the war was over, we danced up and down our street,
Though, it was a few years later till I finally tasted sweets.
One marvellous day our Dad came home, we met him off the train,
As he hugged Mam and us children a band played ‘We’ll Meet Again.’
It’s all so long ago now but I still recall the days
Of privation, fear and longing when song and laughter kept us sane.
Singers on the wireless with their songs that still remain
From those dark days of long ago, when we sang ‘We’ll Meet Again.’

And now we’re going to celebrate the end of that dreadful war,
We face new daily challenges like we’ve never seen before.
Some of us are on the front lines, some of us at home remain,
But one day this will be over and we’ll sing ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

Jeff Woods