Origins

My town was mills and mines

And post-war ration books

The old town of cobbled streets

Back to back two up two down

Strung along a hillside neat

Industrial revolution

 

And then the new world Wimpeys

The Shakerley estate

Houses and gardens in the fields

Built of late to house new families

Shakerley Road led in

Shakerley Lane led out

And in between new houses

In County names laid out

 

And I wouldn’t go down the mine

My father told me that

Post war world a better time

Something would come of that

But I got grabbed by clergymen

Spirited away

Deposited in a seminary

Many miles away

 

My inner drive got buried then

Ambition was no more

Only to be obedient

That was now the score

But inner self will one day out

And so it came to be

I found my way to my own self

When I came home to me

 

Brian Fahy

9 March 2022