For the late, great Shane McGowan. Performed (with Della Reynolds reading the female part) at the Jenny Lind in Hastings on 2nd December 2023.

It was December, Babe
In the Jenny Lind
A poet said to me
Let’s read another one

And then we read a poem
For Shane the Irish Pogue
Who had just passed away
The world had one less rogue

We’ve got big fishing boats
We’ve got chip shops galore
But the wind goes right through you
When it blows onshore

When the poets came down
From a bar on Queens Road
Vicky promised us
Hastings was waiting for odes

You were handsome
You were pretty
But our poems aren’t shitty
When we finish these verses
They’ll howl out for more

And later this evening
The drunks will be singing
And painting the town
Just like old Shane McGowan

A Load of Poets are here today
For most of Saturday
And the bells are ringing out
For Christmas Day.

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