He walked through fields of death
And did not die
The battle of the Somme and Passchendaele
And home he came
But peaceful could not lie
And so asylum became his lonely vale
His body saved – his mind had gone away
Shattered shaken shredded
Taken off its hinge
Only painting calmed his fevered soul
Watercolour flowers
Soothing brings
Forty years a lunatic he lived
Wife and children
Left to fend themselves
He died in ‘62
A strange how do you do
For a volunteer
A Grenadier
Left upon a shelf
Brian Fahy
18 January 2022
+ A story of David Walliams’ great grandfather who joined up to serve in the Great War and lost his mind to shell shock. Part of the series, Who Do You Think You Are?
Erris Poetry 