The Mallard

The Mallard - Harvey Andrews, Graham Cooper

Written by：Harvey Andrews

I still remember how we played together now

You in the water and me on the land

I'd call and you'd follow me people would smile at

Us

Taking their pictures of you in my hand

There in the city a park we could play in

A pool you could swim and an island for home

Young ones each summer you raised to the water

Then stayed for the cold as they left you alone

You were my beauty my peace and my pleasure

A friend I could come to as both of us

Aged

Wild and not knowing that freedom's a treasure

The city's a prison but you were uncaged

So how could they leave you to live with your

Freedom

To share time and silence with one quiet boy

For all things of beauty they could not believe in

They could not conceive so they had to destroy

I saw them laughing and running together

Clutching the red stones and chanting my name

Jeering and joking they left me for ever

To search for the meaning to carry the shame

For I found you broken battered and bleeding

Someone found me wandering late in the night

And all I could ask him was how could it

Happen

And why should it happen and who could I fight

My father came calling me angry and frightened

And as I cried constantly he was afraid

Quietly telling me that I was growing

To live in the world as the world had been

Made

But could I believe in the love he had promised

The dream he had painted in which I could live

If somebody smashes the love that you offer

There's less that you show and there's less you can

Give

And I still remember how we played together now

You in the water and me on the land

People would smile with us

Always that smile let us taking their

Pictures of you in my hand

And try though I have I still can't understand