(no subject)

[cadhla]

We walked through the mud to the sound of the cows,
Their thundering footsteps, their wondering loughs,
Under the roof of the rain as it fell
As we slipped into ballad to find Tam Lin's well.

With fairy fruit sweetness still coating our lips,
The roses and elderflower swallowed in sips,
We entered the green, with its bitter-bright smell,
As we slipped into ballad to find Tam Lin's well.

And the blackberry briars were a veil to be worn,
Though they rendered our fingers all tattered and torn.
We followed the road as it cut through the dell
As we slipped into ballad to find Tam Lin's well.

We sang to the sky and we sang to the stone,
As we stood on a bridge never seen, so long known,
And the count of the crows was a tale we can't tell
As we slipped into ballad to find Tam Lin's well.

The bridge bore us back to the right and road,
Where we walked well aware of the debt that we owed,
And the world was an egg, with the sky for a shell,
As we slipped into ballad to find Tam Lin's well.

We were seeking a stanza, a chorus, a phrase
In the song that had shaped us for years and for days...
And what we found's a treasure we never could sell.
We have walked out of ballad. We saw Tam Lin's well.