londonbard

Bye baby bunting, daddy's gone a hunting,
gone to fetch a rabbit skin,
to wrap his baby bunting in,

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Let Nana drowse by the fire and dream,
Three hands of children she bore in her day,
watch the firelight flicker and gleam,
watch the wrinkled fingers play.

Nana it was who found the bone
the marmot's rib with the useful hole.
Nana it is who threads the gut,
to join the skins of the blanket roll.

Nana it was who caught the child
Nana it was who wrapped it warm,
Mother of Mothers who keeps the cave
where now we hide from the summer storm.

Nana it was who found the earth
Ocre coloured in yellow and red,
Nana it was who mixed it - how?
So it colours the walls 'round the baby's bed.

Nana taught Family to work the spells
That puts the pictures upon the wall.
The bison stands and the horses run,
The fallen cow and the mammoth tall.

Mother of Mothers and Fathers too,
look at the hands outlined in smoke!
Look at the place where Granfer Urg,
Scrawled the snake as a childhood joke!

Look at the bison pierced with spears,
look at the place where the Leader falls,
That was the death of the Granfer Reff
Whose bones lie under the painted walls.

Where do the newborn reindeer hide?
Where do the floods run after the snows?
What do we do when a child is sick?
Nana remembers and Nana knows.