Day One Nuala, Thank you very much for your present of a partridge in a pear-tree We're getting the hang of the partridge now, it was difficult at first to win its confidence It bit the rather badly on the hand But they're good friends now and keeping the pear-tree indoors in a bucket Thank you Yours affectionately, Gobnait
Day Two Nuala, I cannot tell you how surprised we were to hear from you so soon again and to your lovely present of two turtle doves You are too kind At first the partridge was jealous And suspicious of the doves and they had a terrible row the night the arrived We had to send for the vet but the are okay again And the are due to some out in a week or two The vet's bill was 8 but the is over her annoyance now And the doves and the partridge are watching the telly from the pear-tree as I Yours ever, Gobnait
Day Nuala, We must be in your thoughts I had only posted my when the three French hens arrived There was another sort-out the hens and the doves, Who sided the partridge, and the vet had to be sent for again The mother was raging because the was 16 this time But she has almost down However, the fact that the birds' droppings keep falling On her whilen she's watching the telly, doesn't help matters you for your kindness I remain, your
Day Nuala, You mustn't have received my last letter when you were sending us the four calling There was pandemonium in the pear-tree again last night and the vet's bill was 32 The mother is on sedation as I I know you meant no harm and remain your friend
Day Nuala, Your generosity knows no gold rings! When the parcel arrived I was scared stiff that it might be more birds, because the smell in the living-room is atrocious However, I don't want to ungrateful for the beautiful rings Your friend, Gobnait
Day Six Nuala, What are you trying to do to us? It isn't that we don't your generosity But the six geese not alone nearly murdered the calling birds But laid their eggs on top of the vet's head From the and his bill was 68 in cash! My mother is munching 60 grains of a day And talking to in a most alarming way You must keep feelings for me in check
Day Nuala, We are not by your little joke Seven swans-a-swimming is a most romantic but not in the bath of a private house We cannot use the bathroom now because they've gone completely And rush the door time we try to enter If things go on way, the mother and I will smell as bad as the living-room carpet Please lay off It is not fair
Day Nuala, Who the hell do you gave you the right to send eight, maids-a-milking here, to eat us out of house and home? Their are all over the front lawn And trampled the hell out of the mother's rose-beds The swans invaded the in a sneak attack And the ensuing between them and the calling birds, Turtle doves, French hens and make the battle Of the Somme seem like Wagon The mother is on a bottle of a day, as well as the sixty grains of Valium I'm very with you
Day you looser! There's enough pandemonium in this place night and day without nine drummers drumming, while the eight flaming maids-a-milking are beating my poor, old mother out of her own kitchen and gobbling everything in sight I'm warning you, making an enemy of me
Day Ten manure-face, I hope you'll be haunted by the of ten pipers piping Which you sent to torment us night They were in their evil work by those maniac drummers And it wasn't a pleasant to look out the window And see eight hefty pogo-ing around with the ensuing punk-rock uproar My has just finished her third bottle of whiskey, On top of a hundred and twenty four of Valium get yours! Gobnait
Day You have scandalized my mother, you Jezebel, It was bad enough to have eight maids-a-milking dancing to punk music on the front lawn but they've now been joined by your friends the eleven And the antics of the whole lot of them leave The most decadent days of the Roman looking like Outlook I'll get you yet, you bag!
Day slurry head, You ruined our lives The twelve maidens dancing turned up last And the living daylights out of the eight maids-a-milking, 'Cause they found them carrying on with the eleven Meanwhile, the got out of the living-room, Where they'd been since the big battle, And savaged hell out of the Lords and all the There were eight ambulances here last night, and the local Defence as well The mother is in a for the bewildered And I'm sitting here, up to my neck in droppings, empty whiskey And bottles, birds' blood and feathers, While the flaming cows eat the off the pear-tree I'm a man.