The Dunes
Version 2.
This was published, together with "Pinned Down" and "The Hands Of A Barmaid", in Sarah-Jane Lovett's oral: poems, sonnets, lyrics and the like, London, 1999.
The version recorded by Ronnie Drew can bee seen here.

The Dunes

IT'S TRUE I WAS A DOCTOR'S SON
AND YET I GAZED IN WONDER
AS WE PERISHED FROM THE RAGING PLAGUE
THAT CAME WITH THE GREAT HUNGER
THAT CAME WITH THE GREAT HUNGER

I TRAVELLED TO THE WESTERN SHORE
SAW HUGE MOUNDS BUILT OF SAND THERE
FULL OF ROTTING BODIES OF SOULS
THAT DIED FROM THE GREAT HUNGER
THAT DIED FROM THE GREAT HUNGER

I SAW DEAD WOMEN IN THE DITCHES 
WITH BABIES ONE OR YOUNGER
POISON BERRIES IN THEIR MOUTHS
TO TRY TO ESCAPE THE HUNGER
TO TRY TO ESCAPE THE HUNGER

BRITANNIA'S WHORES TOOK ALL OUR GRAIN
TO PUT BREAD ON THEIR TABLES
WHILE WALKING SKELETONS CRAWLED TO THE BOATS
TO ESCAPE IF THEY WERE ABLE
TO ESCAPE IF THEY WERE ABLE

I SAW THEM SCURRYING ON THE BOATS
PANICKING AND FRANTIC
YET MOST OF THEM THEY PERISHED STILL
TRYING TO CROSS THE BROAD ATLANTIC
TRYING TO CROSS THE BROAD ATLANTIC.