By Any Other Name

This isn’t the way it happened But it really could have been. Through half closed eyes I can imagine the scene. We’re sitting having a beer The whole troop and me, That cycle’s shifts are over For a day and half we’re free. All so nice and relaxed As the drink flowed And some of us got into A Yarn spinning mode? My name isn’t really Max Max said to our surprise Really my name is Gerard I swear I’m not telling lies. An instructor in Catterick said He really didn’t like that name So, I’m going to call you Max And It was Max that he became. it was awkward at first he said Because his folks didn’t know And when they’d called him Gerry His response at times was slow. He learned to adjust he said No thanks to that Catterick nonce Buy he’d learned to live his life Under two identities at once So Gerard became Max and He’d learned to accept his fate And after training was finished To change it back was far too late It didn’t seem so improbable In our barmy army game And Max was our mate and After all what’s in a name.. That wasn’t the way he told us But it really could have been so And after all these long years Who the heck is likely to know. Now Old Max has left us Another valued comrade gone But to us his old mates His memory still lives on.