Magpie - Aoife O'Donovan

On a lark, I took a drive down a dark road

Toward the sign that said 'The West'

When I seen it, that glimmering green mark was all I needed

To feel you in the passenger seat

Humming I’m older

I feel your withered hand on my knee

Though I’m traveling alone

When we we were kids we’d pile in

And take the the same road toward the island in the West

We would run and skipping stones

Sinking lower than the evening sun

You were old man then

Getting older every day

And I can feel it then, those were diamond days

And I think I know where

Where you go when you die

You are the magpie

One sorrow, two for joy

Though I never pay no mind to the wire

All the birds that perched upon it

But now a bee’s in my bonnet

I remember the country roads

Causeways and the dunes and

The magpie’s lonely wail sounded like you

Now that I think that I know

Where we going when you die

You are the magpie

All the way from Clare, the Atlantic in our hair

A murder of crows flew over us

Early morning drive singing to pass the time

When you can shut the door and you can feel us

Coming around the bend, coming home again

Even the sky come down like this

When you go we will bury you along the same road

As the sun sets in the west

You on our shoulders we will lower you into the ground like a boulder

When a magpie lands on me humming a lonely

I feel your breath on my cheek though I’m alone