Roots

My mother’s home a cottage

In Erris long ago

Roof cover of thatch

Beaten earthen floor

Fire for warmth and cooking

Turf stacked outside

Cattle in the end space

Simple wall divide

 

My father’s home in Tyldesley

Tiny terraced row

James Street Lower Elliot Street

Squires Lane you know

Polly Smith’s the local

Ale to quench a thirst

Miners with blackened faces

Poverty none worse

 

Out of these poor quarters

Wonderful people came

My mother and my father

And many more the same

Made a life far better

Survivors of a war

We their blessed children

Salute

Those who went before

 

Brian Fahy

5 October 2021