A Co. Kerry Bachelor

I’ve a few fields by the river

a bit of bogland full of rush

where the snipe come to winter

and a wild hedge for the thrush

a few Belgian blue bullocks

cows with sucklers their milk to drain

a donkey to keep them company

when they shelter from the rain

I keep a nate little garden

in the haggard with a limed white wall

and I wakes early in the morning

when the cock his brood do call

I didn't bother with electricity

and I keeps an open fire

sure it gives me a bit of company

before I’am ready to retire

I loves the bit of bacon

I fattens a pig or two

I cures the legs and smokes

them, up chimney’s  flue

I’ve often dreamt of sharing this

with a woman that would be inclined

but they fear that she’d take half of it

would drive me clane off me mind

and so I sits and pokes the fire

and watches how it’s embers glows

Tis the nearest thing to loving

this bachelor ever knows

If me mother had died earlier

there might have been half a chance

but before she signed the farm over

their wasn't room for some romance

Jasus if I brought a girly home

she make a show of me

she wouldn't lave her even sit a while

to drink a pot a tea

ah! she was a good mother

don't get me wrong

but if I played a different tune

she’d sing the same auld song

She gone now God bless her

I’am left here on me own

her mass card said she's dead

10 years how the time has flown

soon I suppose I'll  share her grave

while the cousins sell off the land

tis a poor return for the drudgery

and the loneliness I understand.