VERSES FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

1981–1990

 

From A HISTORY MAKER 1994

Poem: Alasdair Gray © 2005

12 – A Gangrel Folk Song, attributed to Anon

 

O Wat was a nasty old tinker,

And Meg was his nasty old wife,

They hated none more than the other,

They lived in contention and strife.

 

He battered her when he was sober,

She kickit him when he was drunk,

The broken-nosed toothless old gangrels

Yelled, fought, fornicated and stunk.

 

He glowered at each look that she gave him,

She spat at each word that he uttered,

Each hated the other so hotly,

They didnae think other folk mattered.

 

When one broke their neck in a tumble,

(It doesnae now matter just which)

The tither, with naebody else to detest,

Starved to death in the very same ditch.

 
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