Longing for Home, © Tony Fallon Sept 2014.

.Longing for Home, © Tony Fallon Sept 2014.

I'd go back in a minute to Ireland; I'm earnestly wishing I was there,
I would gladly fly over the Atlantic if I could come up with the fare.
The weather is changing so quickly I can feel a deep chill in my bone,
The windows and the door are leaky as I face another winter alone.

The future was bright on that day as I bid farewell to the family in Clare,
As I headed off for Inwood in New York and all of the friends I had there.
I'll never forget the excitement in the airport in a new world far away.
But within a week I was so homesick and lonesome I sure didn't like USA.

It was many a day I went to Gaelic Park and played with the home county team
When I was growing up a gossoon in Ireland to do that was my special dream.
And even though it wasn't Croke Park in Dublin I wrote home and told me auld mother,
And I'm sure it impressed the young lads how they now had a famous big brother.

I met many sweet colleens at the dances and one special one from Banteer
She said she marry me in the morning if I'd give up the horses and beer.
But I thought that she was too bossy now I realize she meant me no harm,
For in my dreams I often still see her and I remember her kindness and charm.

And then there was young Kitty O'Shea from Mohill as nice a girl as I've seen
She said she'd love me forever and ever I called her my own Leitrim Queen
I lost on cards often with fellas and on the trotters in Yonkers was gambling.
I spent money like water in Bars and while she was at home I was rambling,

My life style for years and substances I often smoked sure didn't keep me too healthy,
And even though I was always employed I never saved up so I'm not wealthy.
The letters from Ireland kept telling me that a trip home would do me no harm,
All the others had gone to Dublin and England and they would give me the farm

I kept promising that I would visit them but the years slipped by without a trip,
To take off your shoes in New York is a bother and I'd never go on a ship
The parents are gone now God be good to them to a neighbor the whole farm we rent,
Each of us gets a check which I should save but my check very quickly gets spent.

So now I am here in the Catskill Mountains in a trailer that I call my own,
Its not much better that a caravan, but, it has a television and phone.
It has heat and hot water and a bathroom and outside there's a bit of a deck.
The rent is not much and there's some left for food from my social security check