Padraic Pearseof New York

I was eighteen years old when I went down to Dublin

with a fistful of money and a cartload of dreams.

"Take your time," said me father, "stop rushing like hell

and remember all's not what it seems to be:

for there's fellows would cut you for the coat on your back

or the watch that you got from your mother,

so take care, me young bucko, and mind yourself well,

and will you give this wee note to me brother?"

At the time Uncle Benjy was a policeman in Brooklyn

and me father, the youngest, looked after the farm,

when a phone call from America said send the lad over

and the old fella said "Sure, it wouldn't do any harm:

for I've spent my life working this dirty old ground

for a few pints of porter and the smell of a pound.

And sure maybe there's something you learn or you'll see

and you can bring it back home, make it easy on me."

So I landed at Kennedy and a big yellow taxi

carried me and me bags through the streets and the rain.

Well, me poor heart was thumpin' around with excitement

and I hardly even heard what the driver was saying.

We came in the Shore Parkway to the Flatlands in Brooklyn

to me uncle's apartment on East 53rd.

I was feeling so happy I was humming a song,

and I sang 'You're as free as a bird.'

Well, to shorten the story, what I found out that day

was that Benjy got shot down in an uptown foray,

and while I was flying my way to New York

poor Benjy was lying in a cold city morgue.

Well I phoned up the old fellow, told him the news.

I could tell he could hardly stand up in his shoes,

and he wept as he told me: go ahead with the plan

and not to forget be a proud Irish man.

So I went up to Nellie's beside Fordham Road

and I started to learn about lifting the load,

but the heaviest thing that I carried that year

was the bittersweet thoughts of my hometown so dear

I went home that December 'cause the old fellow died,

had to borrow the money from Phil on the side,

and all the bright flowers and brass couldn't hide

the poor wasted face of me father.

I sold up the old farmyard for what it was worth

and into my bag stuck a handful of earth.

Then I boarded a train, and I caught me a plane,

and I found myself back in the U.S. again.

It's been twenty two years since I've set foot in Dublin,

me kids know to use the correct knife and fork,

but I'll never forget the green grass and rivers

as I keep law and order in the streets of New York.