Paul F. McCann

A SMILE AND A SHILLELAGH

I have an Irish temper that is as wild as wild can be.
So don’t come near me when I’ve got the hands on my shillelagh.
If its trouble you want I’ll give you trouble enough and more.
So don’t come around my house trying to break down the door.
I’m handy writing poetry and I take it as I go.
I love to walk the free roads and feel the wild winds as they blow.
I’m an Irishman with poetry I walk from place to place.
I pick up smiles and pack them in my crocodile skin suitcase.
Me and my suitcase are a team of two joined hand in hand.
We’ve travelled over seven seas and in every foreign land.
Seen different kinds of people, from East to West from North to South.
They all know where I come from as soon as I open my mouth.
I’m an Irishman, right and handy, as any one will tell.
With the want for work and wanderlust that itches me like hell.
I’ve travelled near and far and I’ve seen strange and wonderful things.
Like snakes, sharks, spiders and bees, with their fangs and their deadly stings.
In their own way they are harmless, everyone tells me so.
But I don’t take chances and hit them first with a mighty blow.
I’m an Irishman that’s what I am don’t bring me grief at all,
or I’ll put my axe into your tree and then you’ll see it fall.
On the level you’ll find me walking round all around the place.
Me and my suitcase have escaped from the crazy old rat race.
We walk in peace and harmony through strange streets, long dark and cold.
From Timbuktu to Peru too there are stories tall I’m told.
Some would make you smile while others would make you sorry and sore.
Like the knock-knock-who’s-there: don’t bother – they just kick down your door.
But grab an Irishman right and handy with a mighty blow.
There’re many of us around the world where ever you may go.
With tempers as wild as a bush fire in the dry scrub out there.
Fast and deadly to thick heads so ignorance better beware.
Checking the sights in this big place – thank God for giving me grace,
to travel all around this world with a smile upon my face.
I’m not alone on the road for my shillelagh comes as well.
And if anyone is looking trouble we will give them hell.

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