OffToAmerica©2021TonyFallon0113

 OffToAmerica©2021TonyFallon0113

I had saved and borrowed money and in a week would sail

I said goodbye to my parents now both old and frail

The farm we were living on was way too small to split

I was the eldest I didn't want to cause family conflict

They had raised and nurtured me like all of the others

Now I was leaving them and my sister and my brothers

Belying my doubts and fears I put on some bravado

Knowing I might never come back from Colorado

My uncle never returned he was a cattle baron

A man who had made it big many miles from Aran

The uncle being a kind man sent many an envelope

The American dollars inside helped my parents cope

It was he who lent me the passage and money for trains

To get me from New York to his ranch way out on the plains

I had said farewell to all my friends in the parish

Mates I might see no more but memories to cherish

My father brought me in the curragh as far as Oranmore

By the Limerick Cork border my feet were feeling sore

A kindly farmer let me sleep ten hours in his shed

With breakfast in the morning and four slices of bread

With my sore feet daily I was not making great progress

And each day on the road I found myself walking less and less

The weather was rainy and I was walking in wet shoes

On my right foot I had corns on the left an ugly bruise

But I kept pressing on by day and at night I strove

And anyone I'd meet I'd ask how far more to Cobh

The ticket said at one on Thursday the boat would depart

But when I finally got to the quay my world fell apart

The liner stayed in the bay and did not come in to dock

And the last tender with passengers left at twelve o'clock

I saw the last passenger board and wave us all goodbye

Someone said the next boat to New York was not until July

My boat had left on its first trip across the wild Atlantic

And I have missed the maiden voyage of the great Titanic