The Butcher Boy

(album: Nixon - 2000)

She went upstairs to make her bed and not a word to her mother said
Her mother went upstairs too saying, oh, daughter, my daughter what troubles you

Oh mother, oh mother, oh mother, I can not tell
That butcher, that butcher, that boy I love so well
He courted, he courted, he courted my life away
And now at home, at home he will not stay

There is a place, a place in London town
Where that butcher, that butcher, that boy, he goes and sits down
He takes that strange, that strange girl on his knee
And tells her, and tells her, and tells her what he won't tell me

Her father, her father, her father came home from work
Saying my daughter, my daughter, my daughter, she looks so hurt
He went upstairs, upstairs to give her hope
And found her, and found her, and found her hanging from a rope

He took a knife, a knife and cut her down
And in her bosom, her bosom these words he found
Go dig a grave both wide and deep
And place a marble slab at my head and feet

And over my coffin, my coffin place a snow white dove
To warn the world, the world that I died for love