Forefathers

The World At War worth watching

For history and reflection

Western Desert the issue watched today

My father fought with Rommel there

Relentless sun and desert sand

Like being on the moon

A soldier said

No hiding place just endless flat

My father survived a Stuka attack

All the others died

 

My grandfather before him

Left his Mayo home

Spent his life in the darkness of the mine

A healthy man he smoked a pipe

All his food was boiled

– A frying pan no friend of his –

And after the mine he toiled

In Ward and Goldstone’s factory

Till the age of seventy-six

And died at eighty-seven

Great old man

 

These two men my forebears

What a world they had!

What poverty and suffering they knew

I stand upon their shoulders

I feel the solid earth

And from this height

My God! O what a view!

 

Brian Fahy

21 August 2021