A Lonely Irish Bachelor's Lament
Sweet Hannah
Ah, my sweet Hannah, she never liked chickens. Said they bit her and laughed.
She preferred my pet crow, “Bill,” because he gazed at her dark eyes so still.
Hannah didn’t each much, maybe a nibble here and there.
I’d laugh and ask why and she’d swish her sweet-smelling hair, and say, “I’d die. So there.”
Ah, my sweet Hannah just showed-up at my cabin one day—said she was a wood nymph
And wanted a cup of broth to fight the freezing cold.
Our eyes met and why now, I suddenly forget
Her soft voice kept distracting and I knew she knew that I was only acting.
Ah, my sweet Hannah left in the dead of night, a creature of silence as well as flight.
I slumbered, groaned, and talked in my sleep—hoping to seize Hannah’s wild hand to keep.
At first light, she had breathed on my glass, started a note, but alas her patience passed.
No food for my soul, oh Hannah, I sighed. I’ll not hunt you like game just to give you my name.
" Billie"
Then came a buxom brunette I like to call, “Billie.”
She danced, sang, stood on a chair, and drank so silly.
“I can fly,” she said so willing. I nodded ‘yes’ as my glass with gin I was filling.
“Oh, Billlie,” young girl of Ireland so rough—marry me, help me live me life so tough.
Then one ghostly-eve, “Billie” took her leave. I talked to “Bill,” he loved to deceive.
“Billie, oh, Billie,” my plowin’s not done and my shoes are undone
And I’ve no woman to heat me stew.
“Billie,” my “Billie,” ye passage is cast—I can see already the big sail is set.
"Billie L. Rickley"
I got older quickly, and came Julie R. Rickley, a honey she must me
She winked, gave me a drink, and loved the sufferin’ from inside o’ me
Julie, R. Rickley, where call ye’ home? Why does this lass like a vagabond roam?
“To seek me lover he feeds me honey and clover,” her words ne’er I seen
Then one sunny noon, not later, but soon, “Julie L. Rickley” left me room
Smokeless cloud, shadowless down, and flocking blond hair that flew
Ah, “Julie L. Rickley,” ye left me dumb dilly with no bed or coverin’s that new
Farewell, Sweet Hahhan, “Billie,” and “Julie L. Rickley,”
I’ll just lay me here in me honey and eat it afore it gets sticky.
