Unicorns - June Tabor, Martin Simpson

We were traveling north to sing and play

For friends that we had never met

Been working hard and didn’t speak

The sky was grey and threatened wet

And I dreamed that I saw unicorns

Dreamed I saw them wild and white

their sudden beauty lit the world

Like a star will light a winter’s night

Pure as love with manes of milk

They danced and pranced and cried aloud

Bright as rainbows round the stars

Their eyes were soft and sad and proud

And I wept for the wild and dirty world

To which this beauty now was lost

And cursed the hungry mind of man

That feeds the future at such cost

My head was bowed, my eyes were closed

When in my ears their voices rang

And these few words lodged deep inside

And in my very soul they sang

We never went away

You always knew that we were near

Remember how to look for us

You’ll see we were always here

I raised my eyes to seek them out

The world was empty all around

The rain came tumbling from the sky

It drowned all dreams upon the ground

And when they asked me why I wept

Like one who for his dead love mourns

The only answer I could give

I dreamed that there were unicorns

We never went away

You always knew that we were near

Remember how to look for us

You’ll see we were always here