Richard Thompson: Woods of darney

I found your picture in a corporal's pocket His cold fingers still pressed it to his chest Sniper's bullet took his eyes and his breath away Now he lies out in the forest with the rest You looked shy in your grandmother's wedding dress Feet set wide like a farm girl stands Too young to love and too young to lose In a cracked picture frame in a dead man's hands I kept it with me for the luck, for the magic Maybe fate wouldn't strike in the same place twice But something stirred and I dared to dream of you And I knew I'd look for you if I should survive Whe we stood down at last it was easy to find you And mine was the shoulder you cried on that day Just an old comrade doing his duty Bringing the news from the woods of Darney When I showed you the picture, perhaps I felt jealousy As your tears welled up with each reminisce And my hands may be rougher and my tongue may be coarser But I knew I could give you a love good as his Now we lie in the darkness together Often we lie without speaking this way As you stare in the dark do you see your young corporal Who never came back from the woods of Darney Is it him that you see when we make love together? Is it him that you see when war fills the sky? Was he there as you stood in your grandmother's wedding dress As we made our own vows, you and I? Now the bugle calls, they say this is the big one A curse on the life of a soldier, you say But don't you know that's a soldier's small comfort For the bugle to sound, and to hear, and obey And I'll carry your picture, the one that he carried I'll wear your innocence and take my chance On a frozen field, in a far-flung war To win back what we lost in a field in France And it's many a soldier who goes into battle Your corporal and I, we just hear and obey Perhaps we'll lie in the darkness together With your love to bind us, in the woods of Darney