I Used To Think I Would

I used to think i would grow old and die in Millstreet
In the green countryside where the waterways meet
In the fields of the badger the rook and the silver back crow
Where the evergreen rushes in clusters do grow

But the lust of the wander did lure me away
From the place where i first looked on the lamp of day
And only in memory nowadays i do see
The faces and places once familiar to me

In Claraghatlea where i used to live when my hair was dark brown
By the road to Rathmore just west of Millstreet Town
My three decades of absence from there would have made a stranger of me
Of the past we only have memories is how it seems to be

Some i knew in Millstreet in the cemetery lay
And others from the old town growing old far away
From the Duhallow town in view of high Claramore
In distance quite far from Hibernia's shore

Though the weather for much of the year wet and bordering cold
I used to think in Millstreet that i would grow old
Till the yearn for travel lured me to places elsewhere
For to experience life in the big World out there.