Cobblestones and cotton mills
Coalmines everywhere
Factory chimneys reach the sky
Coal dust in the air
Coal dust is the ground we walk
The Monday washing line
Coal dust clings to my little church
And in a miner’s phlegm
Then every summer way out west
A farm and running river
Cows and sheep and endless hills
The sky goes on forever
Trout brown water turf fire glow
Close to fresh sea breezes
Life is joy and easy slow
The livelong day so pleases
Such my childhood long ago
Lancashire and Mayo
The love of family found in both
And still I love it so
Brian Fahy
28 October 2022
Erris Poetry 