Traditional
(after ‘Black Jack Davey’ - trad. song)
He rides up, whistling, charms her heart,
she goes off with him – just like that.
He rides up, whistling, charms her heart,
she goes off with him – just like that.
Her shoes get left behind, the expensive ones
with heels, her baby and husband also.
with heels, her baby and husband also.
She was bored in the feather bed
and he had a horse – let’s say
and he had a horse – let’s say
it had chocolate hide
and impatient eyes, enough
and impatient eyes, enough
to make her forget how itchy
her skin gets sleeping on straw.
her skin gets sleeping on straw.
*
When you leave, the land goes on
without you. She used to walk
without you. She used to walk
down a dusty road and listen to wind
in the poplars. The leaves were yellow
in the poplars. The leaves were yellow
when she left. Her husband rode after her,
wanting her back. Her friends worried
wanting her back. Her friends worried
he was so angry he’d chop her head off,
but she wouldn’t return.
but she wouldn’t return.
Now the road is crowded with carts
and the poplars reach into the sky.
and the poplars reach into the sky.
The listening she did, her light footsteps,
never existed.
never existed.
*
Then she reached the place
where the next fifty years passed.
where the next fifty years passed.
Her life is a song with many endings –
did she become a tavern owner,
did she become a tavern owner,
a clever operator with a head for business,
or die quickly from a fever
or die quickly from a fever
caught from sleeping on mouldy straw?
Did her dreams cross at night,
Did her dreams cross at night,
blurring the husbands, mixing up
which man she left with?
which man she left with?
O he rode up, charmed her heart,
and she was gone – just like that.
and she was gone – just like that.
