The Ballad of the Working Man

The working man had five sons He had dreams of what they would become The eldest was not very strong And he weakness meant he didn't last long The next son in line had a ruthless streak And he was able to make his life complete The third eldest was the middle man And he would sit astride any disagreement This cost him more than he cared to admit And in the end he made a hash of it The fourth son just wanted to laugh and sing And saw this as his style with no future plans to bring The number five son was the youngest one And had a ride that was easy spoiled with fun Once you have seen this all out in the state of play The working man's plans for sons had gone astray. © Paul Warren Poetry