The medals on your chest
by Clive Sanders
The Remembrance Day parade had passed through the Somerset town,
The old man had dressed smartly, but the rain had hammered down.
When a mother with a young boy said “My son is most impressed.
He says you are a soldier brave, ‘cause you’ve medals on your chest.”
The old man smiling broadly, shook the young boy’s offered hand,
And said “I was a soldier son and led a life so grand.
I have known a lot of soldiers with more courage than I possessed,
Who should be here beside me with their medals on their chest.
But these medals that I wear proudly are for all the years I’ve done,
And all the places I have been, before you were born my son.
Perhaps you’ll be a soldier and you’ll stand out from the rest.
Then when you are as old as me, you’ll have medals on your chest.”
The young boy then stepped forward and asked if he could touch,
The medals that the old man wore with pride that showed so much.
The old man explained the medals on the coat in which he dressed,
And told the reason for each one, of the medals on his chest.
Then the boy looked to his mother and in a voice not very loud,
Said “If Daddy was alive today, he would be standing proud.
For Daddy was a soldier, but he died in Baghdad West.
Or he’d be here beside me, with his medals on his chest.”