'Ave You Seen - A conversation in dialect.

'Ave You Seen?


'Ave you seen the grass grow green?
I 'ave, but long ago.
And is it true the sea were blue?
Blue? Well, yes and no.
I've 'eard it said a rose were red...
That's right, son, red or pink.
And snow were white? The sun were bright?
So bright it made you blink!

And what about the leaves in autumn
were they really gold?
Aye, gold and brown and crimson;
the 'alf were never told.
And were there birds up in the trees?
And did you 'ear them sing?
They trilled a million symphonies,
especially in spring.

And did you ever catch a fish
and tek it to your mother?
And, grandad, do you ever wish
that you could catch another?
I wish I could 'ave seen the earth
when it were young and pretty.
Whatever made the world give birth
to one enormous city?

It were greed that did it, lad,
it all boils down to money;
they spent the world, spent all it had.
Oh, grandad, you are funny!
They spent the silver and the gold,
the copper and the brass,
they spent the oil, they spent the coal,
the trees, the flowers, the grass.

They spent owt that could swim or fly,
they even spent the water,
till all the earth were grey and dry
wi' nowt else left to slaughter.
But worst of all they spent folks' 'earts
and left 'em wi'out beauty.
All that's left when 'ope departs
is one long round of duty.





Christine
© 1990