The Road Taken

I’m very clever me

So I was told

But never very good

At being bold

Except when playing football

I would shout and tell them all

How to play

And how to score a goal

But off the field

I tended to be quiet

And kept my counsel

All inside you see

When I needed for to talk

I might go for a walk

And that’s the way

That life had scuppered me

At Hawkstone

There was no one to confide

Just cloistered walls

And the windy great outside

Not being then a rebel

I harboured all my trouble

When a chat or two

Would have helped the dark subside

The whole place then

Was geared to making priests

And those who left

Had simply lacked the yeast

All trouble

Could be classified as cross

You bear it all

And never count the cost

An outsider could have seen

How bad it was

But other folk

They never came to call

And women well

They were never seen

This is your life

Welcome to Hawkstone Hall

I say this now

A lesson great to learn

We need to talk to others

In our turn

The solitary life

A living death

We need each other now

For vital breath

Brian Fahy

15 April 2021