American Wake - The Elders

In the year of forty seven a new tradition came home

From necessity came a brand new name

For the hunger that stalked their bones

They got their affairs in order

And gathered their friends around

What was left of the food and the whiskey too

Was rounded up from this town

Well they listened to the lies and the stories

A last chance to look them in the eye

Lik a walking corpse behind the hors

And you didn’t even get to die

An American Wake was all they had

They never went back to their native land

They left to find a place to stand

With everything they could take

But first they had to face their American Wake

Well the Brits all said it was coming

The famine was willed by God

The Tory crimes of the London Times

Sent many to die in the fog

Some gave gifts for the journey

Some only had tears and a prayer

An eleven week ride when they caught the tide

If they even lived halfway there

An American Wake was all they had

They never went back to their native land

They left to find a place to stand

With everything they could take

First they had to face their American Wake

Then a jig was danced, a one last chance

For the father to face the son

As the keener wailed they could count the sails

In the rising of the sun

There were blessings and toasts, they buried old ghosts

And they drank to the now and then

As the minutes passed by they tried to deny

They would never see Ireland again