John and Owen Trumble
Were sent to the naughty school
So I heard
Somewhere Manchester way
Their mum had died
Their dad with seven children
Round about
They needed help
It sounds to me
Not punishment
Come the war
Both of them signed up
Like so many more
The whole world
Heading headlong into madness
1914
Larkin wrote his poem about it all
In the merry month of May
1916
John is killed in France
Christmas 1917
Owen near Jerusalem
Meets his end
Nearer my God to thee
Both these men uncles to my dad
Great uncles then to me
Their names are written up
Down in Hough Lane
War Memorial
Tyldesley cemetery
Many a time as altar boy
Assisting with a funeral
I passed by that memorial
Didn’t know
Till my father told me
Now when I go
The memorial I salute
And my father’s grave
They were my nanna’s brothers
I knew her
Ten I was when nanna passed away
Forty years since John and Owen died
Never such innocence
Larkin says
Never before or since
Never such innocence again
Good poet, Larkin
Brian Fahy
21 May 2021
Erris Poetry 