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
Erris Poetry 