[Intro: Sean-nós male lead, ornamented, over a low drone] A chara, sit a minute, it's the blackest mornin' of the year [Verse 1: Sean-nós male lead, hard and steady over big live drums and a heavy kick] It was a year of shutters comin' down on all I'd made The shop went first, the van went next, the bills went red and stayed I sat up in the kitchen with the lights off, savin' coin And I watched the dark come in at four, and then come in at three And every day got shorter, and the shortest one was me Then my sister put my name in for the lottery at the mound Fifty names they pick a year, and mine came out, so I went down To a hill above the Boyne, before the sun, in frost and fog With a dozen frozen strangers and a farmer and his dog Sure look, I said, what use is it, a hole into a hill But the bus was free, the tea was hot, and I had time to kill [Verse 2: Sean-nós male lead, ornamented and harder, uilleann pipes cutting through] Five thousand years ago some farmers hauled these stones by hand No wheel, no iron, just their backs and ropes across the land And they built a passage nineteen meters long into the hill And they aimed it at one mornin', and it's aimin' at it still Not the longest day of summer, when the light is easy found No, they aimed it at the shortest, at the bottom of the round At the mornin' when the year is at its weakest and its worst At the day you'd bet against, they built a doorway for it first So we crouched inside the passage with the cold up to our knees And the guide turned off the torches, and the black came in like seas [Hook: Sean-nós male lead, full drums] It's the shortest day, it's the darkest it can get It's the bottom of the year, and it ain't finished with me yet But from here on every mornin' comes a minute more for free It's the shortest day, and the day it turns for me [Verse 3: Sean-nós male lead, drone resolve, the drone lands on the root as the light hits the stone] Then a line of gold came creepin' on the floor like it was shy Through a slot above the doorway that they cut to catch the sky And it crawled along the passage, a hand's width, then a foot And it climbed the carved spirals where five thousand years were put And it hit the back stone, a chara, and the whole room went to gold And a dozen grown-up strangers wept like children in the cold Seventeen minutes, that's your lot, and then it slides away But it's comin' back tomorrow with a minute more of day So I walked out to the car park, and I didn't feel so small I've been hit by the shortest day, and I'm standin' through it all [Final Hook: Sean-nós male lead, full drums] It's the shortest day, it's the darkest it can get It's the bottom of the year, and it ain't finished with me yet But from here on every mornin' comes a minute more for free It's the shortest day, and the day it turns for me [End]
