It will soon be May in Foremass
But I shall not be there
To hear the corncrakes craking
And the friendly cuckoos making
Public the name they bear.
I envy these wee tourists
As they coo and crake away
Their monotones repeating
As a sign of kindly greeting
As they tour the fields in May.

I have been so long from Foremass
I fear when back I’ll go.
I’ll seek in vain old faces
Of old friends I used to know.
And I fear I’ll be forgotten
And that I’ll find but few
Old voices to remind me
Of the home I left behind me –
Save corncrake and cuckoo.

MICHAEL MULLIN, ‘THE BARD OF FOREMASS,
Foremass Lower, Sixmilecross. Co. Tyrone.