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As thousands of people prepare to commemorate the fallen during this year’s Remembrance weekend, local author and ex-miner Bill Gabb has sent this Remembrance poem to us.

One Way Ticket

By Bill Gabb

As Dal walked slow up Tirphil hill,
The train chugged into the station,
The platform people were standing still,
Watching Daigoing to fight for his nation.

Where’s Daddy going said young Bryn to his Mother,
As the guards man brew his whistle crown the line,

Daddy’s off to France to fight beside his brothers,
Among all the deadly guns and mines.

How long is Daddy going for Mam,
Dear son he said he didn’t know,
Will they give him a rifle with bullets Mam,

For Daddy to go and fight his foe.

After the fighting will he go to heaven Mam,
Where the soldiers make their bed,
No he should be home for Christmas Bryn,
That’s what the War Office said

But that Christmas brought tears,
Of great sorrow and regret, With a stocking full of sadness,
That’s not so easy to forget.

The fallen leaves dance on Tirphil station,
Then they rot and die of old age,
Our Dai died on the field of Flanders,
And blood red poppies grow on his grave.