Seanmhair

Would I have called you seanmhair?
Would I have baked with you?
Would I have learned the Gàidhlig tunes
Your sisters sang with you?

Would I have called you seanair
When we’d come to visit there?
Would you have held my baby hands,
And stroked my curly hair?

Would I have called you seanmhair?
Would you have taught me what you knew?
Would you have shared the secret things
Your mother taught to you?

Would I have called you seanair?
Would you have sung to me?
Would your voice born of the Highlands
Have sounded like the sea?

I never knew my granny’s voice,
Nor held my grandpa’s hands,
I never learned the Gàidhlig words
For life, or love, or land.

But this I know with all my heart:
When it’s my time to go,
They’ll be waiting there, each one,
To welcome me back home.