My Time Again
His Mammy said there’d soon be one more hungry mouth to fill,
He said ‘the learnin’ and the schoolin’ wurnae bad for them that could,
Tho’ I can read & write my bloody name & sign it where I should’,
And he said..
‘If I had my time again, I know I’d be a learned man,
An artisan in high demand, a Doctor or a Teacher,
As sure as guns are made of iron, I were born a working man,
I’d live & die right where I stand if I’d my time again’.
He went wide eyed down tae Johnny Brown, he were a big lad for his years,
And there he worked so long if he ever cried there’d be iron ore in his tears,
He’d tumble in of a Friday night a Haddie for yer tea,
And he’d sing to me their dirty songs & diddle me on his knee,
And he’d sing..
‘If I had my time again, I know I’d be a rovin’ man,
I’d rove away to far Japan to court the Emperors daughter..’
With his mates he’d belt the plates on fleets of shining awe,
To carry all the well-to-do to golden foreign shores,
They all coughed themselves to an early grave half filled with bloody rain,
As the people sang ‘The Long Black Limousine’,
We all sing!..
‘If I had my time again, I know I’d be a fightin’ man,
In far Malay or Vietnam, tho’ I am more a lover..’