Agnes Anna

We were standing with bare feet
Under the bridge in shallow water
Children playing in the river
When you told me of my daughter
Smiling in a photograph
Wearing the red scarf that you'd bought her
And her name is Rose Roberta
She is just one and three quarters
What is it you're so scared of
Why do you have to run away
Are you so frightened of real life
That you can't bear to stay
Agnes Anna come to bed
When the night is cold and sleeting
I can't fly like Peter Pan
I'm just a man whose hours are fleeting
Won't you stay with me instead
I know these words might need repeating
Let me lie down in your arms
And listen to your heart still beating
I was sitting on a bench
Beside the old graves in the churchyard
Children laughing in a playground
The first time I read your postcard
With the landscape by Van Gogh
In which the sky is turning black
I had only read the first line
I knew you weren't coming back
What was it you were seeing
What was it I'm missing
You broke my heart into small parts
You never promised anything