Village Lady Poem by Matt Mooney

“Peig my dear no I wont have tea; ”
To look at you there in your armchair,
Your hair so white in the window light,
Is good enough for me you see;
You say your beads you have said-
For the road ahead.

You’re on decade nine of your dream
Near Coolnaleen, where falls a stream
From Sliabh Chathail on high,
Flowing into the Feale that’s nearby.

Your Tanavalla forever
Looking down to the river:
In the cot that’s your own
By the fireside alone,
Widowed but merry-
“You’ll have whiskey or sherry, ”
“It’s not often you call-
I’ll tell no one atall”
“I have had the hedge cut”, she said,
“And the turf’s in the shed”
“My son Mike will be home
In the fall of the year;
My daughter Noreen is living so near,
We’re over and back
Every day of the year; ”

“To Jo’s I’d go, up the hill long ago,
Past Johnny’s I’d climb-
One step at a time;
Up the Dale Road to me
Came my dear friend Mary.
“They were all great, ” she said,
“It’s a pity they are dead.”
“Well I miss Dr. Jack-
When I think and look back:
How he’d call from the town
And come in and sit down”

“Do you know Fr. Pat?
I’ll tell you now Matt:
He was here yesterday
And I said when I pray
My prayers in Irish I say:
I learned them when young,
Off by heart one by one”
.
“In the old school in Clounmacon
There was skipping and jumping,
Ring a rosy and all kinds of fooling;
That time all the neighbours
At the end of their labours
Danced the polka, then Patsy Haley
And rose in the morning so early”

She had an old local song
That was not very long,
It was all about poor old Michael J,
‘To O’ Connor's grove
They used to rove,
All Tullamore did say.’
I could go on but Peig is gone,
With memories so sweet-
She might you know have the rest of that
When again I hope we’ll meet.