Willy wireless

Willy wireless

The old man shuffles along Main Street
I don't know where he slept or what he had to eat
The old mans name was Willy, I met him as a kid
I'd seek him in Magennis Park, and find him where he hid

I'd keep a sandwich in my lunch box and an apple if I could
After school I'd take it to the park bench, I knew just where it stood
Willy would thank me kindly, then he'd start to talk
He would tell me about the things we'd see, and take me for a walk

Always quiet and unassuming, invisible to the world
We called him Willy wireless, because of the radio that he twirled
Willy asked for nothing, he had no more to give
Just to be left alone, just to let him live

He'd always joke, that he was the cleanest bum in town
He'd bathe himself at the fountain in the park, once they'd shut it down
Down by the railway station was a waterfall where we'd sit and chat
He'd even take a shower beneath the fall if he could get away with that

One day I heard that Willy was a professor of English literature
So I took to him a book, that I knew he'd like for sure
I waited by that park bench but Willy never did return
I even looked at Canon Hill, between the monuments and urns

Someone told me weeks later that Willy died in his sleep
In St Catherine's church yard, so I prayed the Lord his soul to keep
Willy was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave
His memory lives on for evermore, in my mind it's saved

13h22
08.09.2008

Grant
Copyright © 2008 G.M.Gilbert