Heather on the Brae

On the brae where the blackthorn leans,

I still walk in fields of green.

Mists keep time with my scarred steps,

And your name in my daydreams.

You were warm in a borrowed spring,

I was stone with a warrior’s blood.

Still I swear by the old cairn’s shadow,

I hear your voice in the cold west flood.

Ninety winters, ninety more,

I crossed the burns and kept the war.

But every blade and every flame

Cannot erase your name from rain.

Heather, Heather, stay with me

Heather, Heather, come back to me

I am still the man you knew.

Heather, Heather, haunt this land

Heather, Heather, hold my hand

Till the morning breaks us through.

You were one brief breath,

I was made to stay.

And I will always love you

In my quiet way.

Now the clans ride out with iron cries,

And the ravens wheel on the cliffside skies.

I wear your ring on a cord of skin,

Like a vow that the years can’t thin.

When the moon hits the loch at night,

Your pale face comes on the silvered wave.

I speak to the dark like you’re listening,

Like the dead can hear the brave.

I have crossed through ash and frost,

Paid in grief for all I lost.

But the one thing death can’t claim

Is the ash of your sweet name.

Heather, Heather, stay with me

Heather, Heather, come back to me

I am still the man you knew.

Heather, Heather, haunt this land

Heather, Heather, hold my hand

Till the morning breaks us through.

You were one brief breath,

I was made to stay.

And I will still remember you

In my quiet way.

Then the horns sound hard from the glen below,

Red on the snow, red on the snow.

I take my blade where the pine winds bite,

And I run with the ghosts into the fight.

If I fall, let the hills sing loud,

Let the loch keep my oath.

If I rise, I rise for you,

My mortal love, my only truth.

Heather, Heather, stay with me

Heather, Heather, come back to me

I am still the man you knew.

Heather, Heather, haunt this land

Heather, Heather, hold my hand

Till the morning breaks us through.

You were one brief breath,

I was made to stay.

And I love you even more

With every endless day.

On the brae where the blackthorn leans,

I still walk in your old daydreams.

Heather... Heather...

And the heather knows your name.