The Nightingale

The woman got up early and she left her husband’s side
To stand by the window for a while
And when her husband woke and he asked her why she stood
All alone in the shadows at midnight
She said “I watch my baby in the cradle by the door
She sleeps so tight and sweet”
But the husband shook his head and he would call her back to bed
For he did not believe a word she said

The next night she woke and she rose up in the night
To stand by the window at midnight
And there she kissed her lover who was hiding at the porch
And they whispered words of passion and delight
And when her husband woke and he asked her why she stood
All alone in the shadows at midnight
She said “I watch the ships float in the harbour by the sea
The waves are so fair at sight”

But her husband didn’t believe her and he demanded to know
Why his wife used to get up at midnight
So he slapped her till she wept and he yelled until she cried
About the standing at the window at midnight
So she said “There sings a nightingale and he wakes me with his song
So I get up to see him in his pride”
And the husband said “I’m sorry, you should’ve told me this is why
You get up to stand there at midnight”

The next morning her husband to the gardener he said
“There’s a bird here and I want it dead”
So the gardener obeyed and he caught the nightingale
And the husband laughed when he killed his prey
Then he threw it on her lap on a now bloodstained dress,
And he yelled “Here’s your nightingale!
Now you will never leave me and come now, back to bed
I will make you obey me, you know that”

When the woman’s tears were dried up and the husband, he had left
For the last time she stood by the window
And there she kissed her lover and she told him that they could
Never again meet in the moonlight