KEEPING SO THIN
(J.S.Neilson/C.O'Sullivan & C.Pearce)

The red cow will come, it is even
With frost in the air
The white blood she gives for the little one
Keeping so fair

The father will say at the sundown
How white is her skin
He looks for the smile of the little one
Keeping so thin

The red cow is out on the rushes
The old swans near by
They see all the turns in the weather
The scowl in the sky

The land is all buckshot and sorrow
It cries like a prayer.
The rubble it writes in the cutting grass
Famine is there.

The young lad has toppled the sheoak
The red cow comes in
She eats of the leaves for the little one
Keeping so thin

The lean year it is for the honey
When half the trees fail
But the red cow is good to the little one
Keeping so pale

The father has fears at the sundown
What grave night can bear
To the little one having no mother
And seeming so fair

The young girl who watches at nightfall
Old dreams will obey
Of dim time – the fairies – the moonlight
The lifting away

Another lovely Neilson poem to which Cathie O'Sullivan and Cleis Pearce put a tune.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.