Deer Island

Deer Island
(Mary Lee Partington)

I stand on the bluff looking out on the harbor
That measures the distance between you and me
’Tis naught did I know when I left my own country
I’d rest on Deer Island looking out on the sea.

Once I stood warm on a spring day in Kerry
Red roses and rain swept the big house and lawn
I worked in the chambers and learned of fine linen
And fancied myself but a poor Caitlín bawn.

Fortune and fate conspired hard against me
And all of my people once free, proud, and bold
One morn we awoke to the blight of betrayal
What nature had spared to the English was sold.

The choice that I made then I’ll rue to my judgement
My back did I show to the hunger grown wild
My face to the wind as I sailed far from Queenstown
Far away from the workhouse, my mother, and child.

I knew from your letters that Boston awaited
Her charity dry as the waves met her shore
My eyes sought your face as my ship turned from docking
Quarantine on Deer Island was the order she bore.

Twenty days time as the sick and the dying
Were carried on shore to a cold, paupers grave
I stand on the bluff with my eyes set on Boston
My feet in the foam of a salt white-capped wave.

My house it is dark with the absence of sunlight
One smile from your face could cause for to glow
The walls of white limestone are cold with the knowledge
That here on Deer Island our love cannot grow.

My hand is the wind and my hair is the rapeseed
My voice is the call of the gull to the shore
My heart is the wave on the rocks of Deer Island
My hope cold and dashed in the gale’s icy roar.

Where is my mother, oh where is my baby
Where is the sorrow I should feel for my loss
I walk on the bluff when the cold moon glows crystal
To gaze on rough markers and a lone Irish cross.

I stand on the bluff looking out on the harbor
That measures the distance between you and me
’Tis naught did I know when I left my own country
I’d rest on Deer Island looking out on the sea.