You Should Have Had a Rich Man for a Father

Jim Wearne copyright 2017

I look at you there sleeping by the fire,

The cottage hides my boy from cold and rain.

The bit of coal that keeps you warm this evening,

It may not be there evermore again.

The mines are closed, there’s no more work to pay me,

So I can buy you coal and meat and bread.

You should have had a rich man for a father,

You’d never want for shelter overhead.

 

There’s lots of tin still down there in the levels,

The men with money said it has to stay.

The price is far to low for them to profit,

And profit means much more than you to they.

We can’t get no more credit at the grocer’s,

Your mother’s garden won’t feed us for long.

You should have had a rich man for a father,

To shield you now that everything’s gone wrong.

 

I comb your tousled hair with my rough fingers,

And memorize your features as you sleep.

I wonder if I’ll see you as I’m dreaming,

I wonder if these mem’rys I will keep.

I’ve put away my hammer, drill and shovel,

For you to use if, when you’re grown, there’s work.

You should have had a rich man for a father,

So you would never know the mire and murk.

 

I wonder if you ever will remember,

The way we laughed and played in fields of gold.

We never even thought of ever parting,

Together you’d grow up and I’d grow old.

Tonight, my ship is straining at its anchor,

Tomorrow, I must go across the sea.

You should have had a rich man for a father,

Instead of a poor Cornishman like me.

You should have had a rich man for a father,

Instead of a poor Cornishman like me.