Tank Park Salute - Billy Bragg

Kiss me goodnight and say my prayers

Leave the light on at the top of the stairs

Tell me the names of the stars up in the sky

A tree taps on the window pane

That feeling smothers me again

Daddy is it true that we all have to die

At the top of the stairs

Is darkness

I closed my eyes and when I looked

Your name was in the memorial book

And what had become of all the things we planned

I accepted the commiserations

Of all your friends and your relations

But there’s some things I still don’t understand

You were so tall

How could you fall?

Some photographs of a summer’s day

A little boy’s lifetime away

Is all I’ve left of everything we’ve done

Like a pale moon in a sunny sky

Death gazes down as I pass by

To remind me that I’m but my father’s son

I offer up to you

This tribute

I offer up to you

This tank park salute