Transcription from above link.

Mick

---

POPPIES
(Mick Ryan)


In The Great War out in France and Flanders poppies grew in millions,
When the earth's disturbed the seeds begin to grow.
In The Second War the poppies grew on bombsites everywhere,
Like faces that you feel you ought to know.
But before the war, between the wars, and since the wars were fought,
Besides canals, beside the railways, and then beside the roads,
Where the navvies worked and died the poppies grew to mark the pride
Of the men who worked like men to build a land not yet their own.

  Chorus:
  And every year the poppies grow all over England,
  Every one the lonely waving of a long-forgotten life;
  By the roads and motorways, they spring out to mark the days
  Of the boys, of the men, of the navvies.


They were young and old, but mostly young men, working here in England,
When the earth's disturbed the seeds begin to grow.
From old photographs they steal right through you, folding? in their labour
With faces that you feel you ought to know.
From every corner of the land, and from across The Irish Sea
They came to build canals and railways and then to build the roads.
And where the navvies worked and died the poppies grew to mark the pride
Of the men who shifed tons of earth in land not yet their own.

  Chorus:
  And every year the poppies grow all over England,
  Every one the lonely waving of a long-forgotten life;
  By the roads and motorways, they spring out to mark the days
  Of the boys, of the men, of the navvies.

  By the roads and motorways, they spring out to mark the days
  Of the boys, of the men, of the navvies.




Source: Mick Ryan: The Navvy's Wife(CD title) link above: live performance at Chester FF