William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD

THE STAIRS AND STARES AND CARES

Oh I have seen the pictures of Vancouver’s stairs
And I have sat and wondered and pondered and stared
Forming personal opinions with thought and with care
About poetic photos of those cold and bleakened stairs

The human shadow silhouettes go up and they go down
They cover the heart of Vancouver’s streets down town
And John writes his poetry beneath each photo shot
He’s a Vancouver poet living there amongst the have not

John is an old soldier who way back in the day
Joined up to serve HMQE2 in the good old fashioned way
He served his Queen and Country and he traveled oft afar
Fighting personal demon thoughts from his seat up at the bar

Cover up the thoughts of despair and ease the pain of reality
Alcohol sitting there in the glass did it help to set John free?
It covered up his feelings and it led to addiction
The story of John’s life, like mine, is stranger too than fiction

A jazz music expert and John’s a photographer of perfection
A poet of distinction and a writer of Canadian mention
On the 11th of November John he still comes to attention
He conquered his demons through hard work and prevention

John doesn’t have a lot of WAM to spend or to lend
But he is a very good and dependable old friend
I know if I was in trouble and I was in a fix
John would come to my aid because he’d have my six

That is a thing that we old soldier’s do
We’ve still got some work to complete it is true
And we’ll get it all done before we are both through
We’ll head our taps at the bone yard like old soldiers do!