Before He Had Been Born (The Wind That Shakes the Corn, Traditional)

One of the saddest stories on LOST is that of Daniel Faraday, the gentle, addled quantum physicist killed by his own mother. In an earlier parody, I imagined that he died believing that she had led him as a lamb to the slaughter. Here, I take her perspective, and I imagine something a little different - that she insisted so intensely on his studies in hopes that he would find a way to undo her fatal moment (without ripping a gaping hole in the space-time continuum).

For this, I picked another tragic tale of love lost in wartime: the traditional Irish ballad The Wind That Shakes the Corn, as sung by the Irish Rovers. (I'm also assuming that Daniel was born after the Incident - that he was the baby with whom Eloise was pregnant at the time. If that's not true, this parody has a fundamental flaw...)

Before He Had Been Born

I stepped in on a shocking scene. 
I stepped in with my gun.
Back then, I was the Island queen, 
The boss, the number one.
I meant to rescue Richard, though 
He greeted me with scorn
When I took aim and shot my son 
Before he had been born.

I watched his fingers fleetly play 
The music he adored.
I made him cast his dreams away; 
It pierced me like a sword. 
But still, I set him on his path, 
Although my heart was torn,
In hopes I wouldn’t shoot my son 
Before he had been born.

He grew into a physicist 
With such a brilliant mind.
I thought, “If only I had missed!” 
He was so sweet and kind.
And still he seemed a shattered man, 
So frazzled and forlorn,
Yet unaware I’d shot him dead 
Before he had been born.

“Whatever happened, happened” was 
His often-heard refrain.
I hope that he was wrong because 
If not, I strove in vain.
I pray he’ll somehow change the past 
So I’ll no longer mourn
That in coldest blood, I shot my son 
Before he had been born.