Those Who Tell The Stories

Some of us knew you for a long time

Others a little while.

Some had enjoyed your company

longer across the miles.

We all came to Vocal to be just that

making our voices heard.

But the hearing was not through tempo and tone

but through the written word.

The words you wrote were magical,

whether humorous or sad.

Horror stories or shepherd's tales,

Or stories of lassies and lads.

"That personal drug"..."Chocolate on your tongue",

in The Devil on Your Shoulder;

"Savor them"...and "Our drugs changed as we got older".

"It's weird what we hold onto",

You said in To Ring True.

An old tractor worth repairing

though it didn't look brand new.

Like a lot of other old things

that would not impress the world,

But "when you get under the skin"

are still worth caring for.

You loved the new born little lambs

... cherished the old ewes and rams.

A more faithful Shepherd who could find?

"What becomes of the broken hearted?",

Many of us have only started

to work that out in our minds.

There was Once an Ugly Duckling,

but wait, an apology?

"There's no such thing as an ugly duckling",

There is beauty there to see.

"Two Cents" and "Finders Keepers"

Two lads who came to call.

The penny-saving matron

Helped calm a family brawl.

"Dreaming of Being a Horse"

A sheep named Loui s XV

Who seemed to wish to be a horse,

a brown horse - a symbol of strength...

I read these stores by Tom Brad

and glimpse his imagination,

The humor and intellect he had

living in an adopted nation.

The story that touched my heart the most

and brought the tears unbidden

Was "The Wrong Side of the Water",

Where homesickness had been hidden.

He poured it out there on the page,

His longing to go home.

Would home, like him, now be changed,

While two years he had roamed?

If not for the pandemic

and the endless quarantines,

Would he have been back in England

Viewing familiar scenes?

Those of us whose lives he touched

wish Tom eternal peace,

and may there be a place like 'home'

where all his burdens cease.

***

His outreach is "To Be Continued" as we hear his voice through the stories in his profile.

He said it at the end of every story he wrote: "Those who tell the stories rule society".

Tom, you have left your indelible mark on society and on the many lives you have touched.

If each of us can channel a little bit of Tom...his tenderness and his stubborn passion, we can all be part of the change we want to see in society and the world.

Bien Venue, Sir Tom.