Theresa Stephens | + Follow Poet |
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My Life So Far:

I met my love one summer's day

Amongst the fields threshing hay

Her bonnet slung about her neck

As homewards afterwards we did trek

Her bonny brown hair

to waist length did fall

A comely wench with wherewithal

She at first was hard to win

But at harvest dance she kicked me on my shin

I winced with pain, I put it on

pretending it hurt more and more anon

It gave me a chance to catch her eye

To make her laugh and made her sigh

Next time we met I knew her worth

Her honest folk were salt of the earth

We courted for three long years

Our yearnings often brought us to tears

We saved as much as we could afford

We wanted to emigrate 'abroad',

America was the place to go

Jobs aplenty and land to grow

and farm upon

And all year round I heard that always

the sun shone

When we had saved up our fare

We booked our passage without a care

But once upon the steamer ship

We were retching and felt homesick

On upper deck we sickly laid

As my wife nursed our three month babe

Eventually we reached New York

Which we couldn't see, as we arrived in the dark

At Ellis Island they checked us three

As nervously I held Thomas on my knee

Inspection over we were led out

So joyous our happiness we wanted to shout

A land of opportunity we believed it all

But had no permanent work until the fall

Our dreams of owning our own farm

Vanished long ago with each early dawn

The children came one after another

Thomas had two sisters, then a brother

Our tenement flat overlooked Central Park

We saw horse drawn carriages and heard morning lark

I worked in a meat factory from dawn to dusk

The only way to get a few dollars to earn a crust

We were best off back in Ireland

Tending sheep for a guinea crown

Good honest labour out in the fresh air

Not working indoors under a gas light flare

My wife and children shall suffer no more

I promised her as I left through the door

I shall get our passage fare home

And down to the bank my feet did roam

To withdraw my savings for that dream farm

It's not worth it if my family came to any harm

Now we are back in old Ireland

And to cattle and pigs I now do tend

I'm renting my old abode

With an acre of land as I did of old

To see the contented smile on my wife's face

I think on it as we say our grace

To give thanks for what we are about to receive

To be back home we are mightily relieved.

Copyright © Theresa Stephens | Year Posted 2014

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