Thomas and Martha

Dorchester, August 1856

I'm an old man now and ashamed of this

But I had to be in town for other reasons



I stood in a crowd of three or four thousand

The hood on her head and the rope around it

And summer's sometimes not the warmest season



A fine figure shrouded in black

Hung in the misty rain

Wheeled half-round and back

And her silk gown set off her shape



I'm an old man now and ashamed of this

But in Dorchester, August 1856

I saw hanged Martha Brown of Birdsmoorgate