Me and the JCB © Tony Fallon4/2/2017

Me and the JCB © Tony Fallon4/2/2017

You and I sat beside the Shannon in the fading evening light

Before you headed off for America on an Aer Lingus flight

If it wasn’t for the swans and ducks we’d have been all alone

As the lights reflected on the river south of us in Athlone

We renewed our promises to each other and solemnly did swear

That no third party would ever ruin our special love affair

I knew you loved your parents yet to me they showed malice

It was not for your health they were sending you to Dallas

They were hoping that you’d find a man in a professional field

A rancher with some cattle or a medical man who healed

Who would want you for your beauty and you would control

But I wanted you to be free I just wanted your heart and soul.

They knew I’d never become rich by daily installing fences

But I did an honest day’s work and I paid all my expenses

I told your father if he’d guarantee my signature I’d buy a JCB

And drain the entire farmer’s land on both sides of Lough Ree.

I shared with you my ambitions and my wildest dreams

Of draining all the local bog land into the local streams

And of hiring a few ambitious unemployed local lads

And telling everybody about us in local newspaper ads.

You are back from America and they are calling you the Yank

But you haven’t changed a bit the good lord I thank

You greeted me on arrival with even more emotion

Than the night we parted before you went over the ocean

 You said your aunt with our love story was so excited

And she’ll come over for the wedding if she’s invited.

She’d love to return again to where her life began

And visit the grave of a man in her past one Joseph Moran

She also gave you a check so when she comes she’ll see

Sitting, somewhere in Kiltoom, our brand new JCB.