Homage to Shane Macgowan

I  wrote this a short while ago when it was clear to those who followed him he did'nt have much time left. He was like Bob Dylan far more than a songwriter, he was a great poet and his "Fairytale in New York" will still be an anthem at Christmas for decades to come. RIP Shane. I've never understood the Irish rush to self destruction amongst it's greatest creatives. Although it's fair to say i've written some that people have enjoyed after a bottle of Jamisons! RIP Shane.

Homage to Shane Macgowan
I saw a pot of gold
Sitting slumped by the road
He was beautiful and broken.
And shone with alabaster
Broken teeth and shame.
His words were gold.
He was rotting
In his prison
But still glowed 
With all thats great
Of the greatest of hungers.
He was Behan
He was Mangan
He was O’Brian
He was unshaven.
He flowed with a love
That only he could see
With fiddles and poteen.
He’ll always be Christmas
In downtown New York.
The NYPD choir
Will always sing
For everyone
As he thinks of Galway bay
and drinks his life away.
His love was Victoria
But he saw snakes and smoke.
His voice rasped
unbroken with free Irelands lilt.
And his throat growled
As he sang of the road.
Now that you've left us
Your beauty is still there.
Over a Martini and ice.
You’ve driven our world
With gravel in your voicea
and freedom in your heart.
Were still here Macgowan
So come give us one more
To remember you by.
We’ll plant a tree of rowan
And raise a glass or three.
And maybe many more.
Your words of beauty
Words of shame.
As you shout out your songs
As they live down the years.
you won’t want our love.
And you don’t  want our tears
From our dirty old towns.
So now he's gone 
But like Behan and Mangan
He’ll always live on
Flying that Republican flag.
Down that old main drag
Growling out stories
Of a broken old fag.