A New Born Prayer

In the year of our Lord 2000 & 2

We were gifted with a new-born son

T’was the nineteenth of November at 8.43pm

The date and time he was born

He weighed in on the scales

At 5lb 12 & ¾ oz a healthy size I was told

With a cry to the sky and wide open blue eyes

He tried to bounce around

Once wrapped up was he

He was given to me and I was the first to hold him

I sat in my chair and with wonderment stared

At the head of hair that was on him

Well he was placed in a cot and I saw not a lot

For then I turned queasy

After a cup of hot tea I went through to see

Both mother and new baby

By 1am on the twentieth

They had moved us to the ward

No. 38 with a massive locked gate

Because some fathers escaped

Well mother and I had said with a sigh

“Just what on earth will we call him?”

Names wir bandied aboot

Like a smelly auld root

Thir wiz nane we could baith quite stomach

Through a night wi nae sleep

Dawn sterted tae creep

An a licht shone in oor een

“Wit aboot Jay” “Unusual” ya say

But still it is nice an plain

So that my ‘Wee Man’

As they cry through the land

Is how ye got yer name

Say it wi pride fir a o yer life

Yer the only ane wi it we ken O

MUSIC: The Irish Rover