With Painted Words

Childhood Lost

by Agnes Clarke

With their father taken from them, an illness not understood

Round their mother’s knee they huddled trying to be good

But mum did not want to know for she had hatched a plan

To abandon these poor “wee” waifs and take off with a man

She dressed them in their Sunday best and quickly packed a bag

Held together hand in hand they left home by the back yard

 

No one must see this act so cruel and so quietly they walked

Mother with that telling look, no time allowed for talk

They reached the railway station and with very little time

The tickets bought, the children were left behind the station line

With tickets attached to signs around their necks

These three children were abandoned with never a look back

 

The stationmaster wondered why no adult was in charge

But the note pinned to the older child was explanation by far

The boy was to be taken and housed in the male section of orphanage named

The girls to be transferred to a female block with the arrangements made

The youngest girl was just a baby-in-arms

Her sister so protective, though, sad she showed her charm

 

The relations were not told or notified of this break in family

And traces of those children were lost for years until just casually

One Sunday by coincidence relatives had taken a drive

Miles away from where they lived decided to rest awhile

On a park bench they watched with fascinated eyes

A lot of children dressed alike in line went snaking by

 

One little face stood out, whom they thought they recognized

Thinking they were a boarding school out for a Sunday surprise

Upon finding the true nature they decided to enquire

The little girl they had picked out looked like a sister-in-law

She had not kept in touch and in their hearts they knew

That something bad had happened but no news ever came through

 

That Sunday was the start of a new life for those girls

The boy had left his life behind and joined the Royal Marines

Those girls were brought to live at their Aunt and Uncle’s home

The boy he learned their fate and visited when he could come

The little girl is grown now, and has children off her own

For she became my sister-in-law and I love her like my own

 

With their father taken from them, an illness not understood

Round their mother’s knee they huddled trying to be good

But mum did not want to know for she had hatched a plan

To abandon these poor “wee” waifs and take off with a man

She dressed them in their Sunday best and quickly packed a bag

Held together hand in hand they left home by the back yard

 

No one must see this act so cruel and so quietly they walked

Mother with that telling look, no time allowed for talk

They reached the railway station and with very little time

The tickets bought, the children were left behind the station line

With tickets attached to signs around their necks

These three children were abandoned with never a look back

 

The stationmaster wondered why no adult was in charge

But the note pinned to the older child was explanation by far

The boy was to be taken and housed in the male section of orphanage named

The girls to be transferred to a female block with the arrangements made

The youngest girl was just a baby-in-arms

Her sister so protective, though, sad she showed her charm

 

The relations were not told or notified of this break in family

And traces of those children were lost for years until just casually

One Sunday by coincidence relatives had taken a drive

Miles away from where they lived decided to rest awhile

On a park bench they watched with fascinated eyes

A lot of children dressed alike in line went snaking by

 

One little face stood out, whom they thought they recognized

Thinking they were a boarding school out for a Sunday surprise

Upon finding the true nature they decided to enquire

The little girl they had picked out looked like a sister-in-law

She had not kept in touch and in their hearts they knew

That something bad had happened but no news ever came through

 

That Sunday was the start of a new life for those girls

The boy had left his life behind and joined the Royal Marines

Those girls were brought to live at their Aunt and Uncle’s home

The boy he learned their fate and visited when he could come

The little girl is grown now, and has children off her own

For she became my sister-in-law and I love her like my own

 

With their father taken from them, an illness not understood

Round their mother’s knee they huddled trying to be good

But mum did not want to know for she had hatched a plan

To abandon these poor “wee” waifs and take off with a man

She dressed them in their Sunday best and quickly packed a bag

Held together hand in hand they left home by the back yard

 

No one must see this act so cruel and so quietly they walked

Mother with that telling look, no time allowed for talk

They reached the railway station and with very little time

The tickets bought, the children were left behind the station line

With tickets attached to signs around their necks

These three children were abandoned with never a look back

 

The stationmaster wondered why no adult was in charge

But the note pinned to the older child was explanation by far

The boy was to be taken and housed in the male section of orphanage named

The girls to be transferred to a female block with the arrangements made

The youngest girl was just a baby-in-arms

Her sister so protective, though, sad she showed her charm

 

The relations were not told or notified of this break in family

And traces of those children were lost for years until just casually

One Sunday by coincidence relatives had taken a drive

Miles away from where they lived decided to rest awhile

On a park bench they watched with fascinated eyes

A lot of children dressed alike in line went snaking by

 

One little face stood out, whom they thought they recognized

Thinking they were a boarding school out for a Sunday surprise

Upon finding the true nature they decided to enquire

The little girl they had picked out looked like a sister-in-law

She had not kept in touch and in their hearts they knew

That something bad had happened but no news ever came through

 

That Sunday was the start of a new life for those girls

The boy had left his life behind and joined the Royal Marines

Those girls were brought to live at their Aunt and Uncle’s home

The boy he learned their fate and visited when he could come

The little girl is grown now, and has children off her own

For she became my sister-in-law and I love her like my own