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A Blue Day

Contributed by Glenda Lightowler, written by her mother - Winnie. (The girls concerned were pupils at Buchan School in Castletown.)

(Dedicated to my brother Eric, and the millions like him in France.)

A fair blue sky, and a blue green sea
Bright blue were the frocks of the girls
Like sapphires the eyes of the littlest one
A-sparkling beneath her curls
And under a haze which was somehow blue,
But softened the picture down
Was the chalky blue of the stones of the quay
And the blue-slate roofs of the town
My heart should have leapt to this glorious scene
Rejoicing in the view
Yet I couldn’t respond to the should-have-been
For feeling a little bit ‘blue’
My thoughts they winged their way to where
Grey dust of Cherbourg has filled the air
And other villages beside the sea
No longer peaceful havens are in Normandy
I see in my mind’s eye the trees
Blasted and broken, once green like these
The blackened turf where children used to dance
On what are now the battlefields of France
And where a million other brothers in blue — grey
Join with their brother nations, and they will
Fight on. Not ceasing fire, till England may
Have her blue days again, and know no ill.

‘L¾±²µ³ó³Ù²â’

(Note from contributor ‘ Re Uncle. Meteorologists in RAF. Landed on 2nd day of D-Day.’)

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