The Cuckoo Bird (Feb 1976)

The old lady sits on her window stool, watching the days go by.

She watches the spring flowers growing and follows the birds to the sky.

Her life was so full of romantic things, until one day her husband was gone.

Then all the windows clouded with tears and the cuckoo bird stopped in mid song.

Alone in her house on the top of the hill, her garden a forest of green.

Shambles and thickets overgrown in a heap, how tidy and neat it had been.

She once had a daughter with long auburn hair, her husband had gloated with pride.

But she grew to a woman and wanted her life, so she upped and sailed with the tide.

Leaving her mother and father so hurt, they wondered where they’d gone wrong.

Her father collapsed with a broken heart and the cuckoo bird stopped in mid song.

The house was so dusty and musty and old, so dark with the years it had stood.

Then one day the wind brought the rain from the town, so it dampened and rotted the wood.

The old lady sits on her window stool, thinking the days won’t be long,

Till her husband would come and take her away and the cuckoo will finish his song.