Brigid was born on a flax mill farm,
Near the Cavan border, in Monaghan,
At Lough Egish on the Carrick Road,
The last child of the Sheridans.
The sluice runs still near the water wheel,
With thistles thriving on rusted steel.
What's known of Nellie's early years?
Da died before she knew grieving tears,
But her eyes will burn in later years.
She's eleven posing with her class,
This photo shows an Irish lass.
Her visage blurred,
Her eyes look distant,
Yet recognizable
In an instant.
She attended school for six short years,
The three R's, some Irish,
With a Doctorate in tears.
Her Mammy grew ill,
She lost a leg,
And bit by bit,
By age sixteen,
Nellie buried her first dead.
Too young to be alone,
Sisters and brother had left the home.
The cloistered convent took her in,
She taught urchins and orphans
About God, Grace and sin.
(There were no vows for Nellie then.)
At nineteen she met a Creamery man,
Jim Lynch of the Cavan clan;
He delivered dairy from his lorry,
Married Nellie
To relieve their worry.
War flared up, and men were few,
A Coventry move would surely do.
(and thistles bloomed as they grew.)
Nellie soon was Michael's Mammy,
Then Maura, Sheila and Kevin were carried.
When war floundered to its end,
They shipped back to Monaghan,
To work the flax mill again.
The thistles and weeds
That surrounded the mill,
Were scythed and scattered
By Daddy's zeal.
He built himself a generator.
And powered the lights and the wheel.
Sean was born,
Gerald soon followed;
Then Michael died.
A nine year old,
His Father's angel.
(Is this what turns
A father strange?)
Francie arrived,
Then Eucheria,
But ten months later
Bold death took her.
Grief knows no family borders
For brothers and sisters, sons or daughters.
We left for Canada.
Mammy brought six kids along,
Leaving her dead behind,
Buried with Ireland in familiar songs.
Daddy waited for our family,
Six months before Mammy got free
From death's inhumanity.
Her tears and griefs weren't yet over,
She birthed another son and daughter;
But Jimmy and Marlene left us too.
Death is sure,
Death is cruel.
Grandchildren came for Little Granny,
Brigid, Nellie, her names are many.
She lived this life eduring pain
That mothers bear,
Mothers sustain.
And yet, in times of personal strain,
I may invoke her one true name:
                            "Mammy."

War

     Gives
Nothing


But

Takes everything

I won't be there when they reminisce
On the way Ciaran courld purse his lips,
Or ask for a sucker and with his wayward look.

                   we dropped them off at school
                    gave them treats and broke the rules
                    we were cheering, clapping, beaming
                    we're with you when you're young
                    we helped teach you right from wrong

They'll laugh at my raisins,
And frozen cheesesticks,
The fruity yogurt,
My silly magic tricks.
They'll talk for years about our Sunday morns,
The BLTC's ... and... little storms... and
Then they'll mourn.

                        we picked you up on rainy days,
                          you'd have sleep-overs and movie galas,
                          we took you to concerts, plays and games,
                          to swimming pools on sun splashed days,
                          and gladly do it next year again

One would shyly ask for a cookie,
A digestive or an Oreo,
One would ask for licorice,
Or a fugesickle with a spoon and dish.
And one, a grandson or daughter,
Would meekly ask for a straw and water.

                            you see us whisper with Mom & Dad,
                             and wonder if it's good or bad,
                             but we confirmed sizes and bikes
                             and arrangements for an overnight

In days to come you'll reminisce
On all the things we'll surely miss.

I am older now,
And we've been together
For decades now,
So I don't pretend
To remember
Our first kiss, now.
Anyhow,
It's sensations are still with me.
That kiss was a sentence.
Anywho, or, Anywhom,
What's more important,
Is...
I don't foresee
Our last
Anytime soon.

Woman
          Is a sharp sword
                      but
in a scabbord

Witnesses of all time.
On holy grounds they are.
Many people laid to rest everywhere over millions of years.
Living further in green suits,
majestic and tall.
In all shapes and forms.
People come and go.
Look at them standing now.

Forest full of green
Our ancestors watching.
Giving us oxygen to breathe.
Handle it with care.


Shell✨🐚

We built
a tower
with hands
that did not know
how to touch.

It rose,
stone by stone.
Each word, a brick.
Each silence,
the mortar.
Promises—
vanishing into air.

We stood
at the bottom,
blaming the height
for our aches—
but the tower
was never
what broke us.