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And You’ll Be Like Clementine

Composer:   Ed Hooke
Date of Composition/Copyright:   1995
Date of Recording:    2002

Commentary
The trauma of miscarriage.

Dedicated to Sarah H & famiily - and the memory of Alfie.

The title/line “And you’ll be like Clementine” refers to this verse from the traditional US American song ‘Clementine’ in which the singer’s daughter has died:-

           “How I missed her.  How I missed her.
            How I missed my Clementine
            but I kissed her little sister
            and forgot my Clementine…”

The chorus of the original  ‘Clementine’ is used as the introduction to ‘And You’ll Be Like Clementine’.

They tell me this pain

will ease given time

that soon I'll kiss your little sister

& you'll be like Clementine

but I can't forget the smiling face

that I've never seen.

Is this silence the epitaph

for whoever you might have been?

Oh how I've loved you.

How I love you still I'm left empty inside.

Now the world calls me to live again

but this child has died.

My child has died. 

We knitted some clothes

but they'll never fit.

We made you a bed.

You'll never lie in it

& we sang "hush-a-bye baby"

but you never cried

& the mobile is immobile.

The nursery's unoccupied.

The sandcastles we dreamed of building

are washed out by the tide

& the dawn will never kiss your lips.

This child has died.