TWO TRENCHES.

A BOY AND HIS UNCLE AND HIS PROPOSAL OF DIGGING TWO TRENCHES.

We need to dig two trenches
In the churchyard, Uncle said,
The pipe bowl held in his left
Hand, stuffing it with tobacco
With the right. Now? Aunt

Enquired. Tonight? Needs be
Tonight as I’ve work elsewhere
Tomorrow and Father Mulligan
Wants it done as soon as is
Possible, as the men are coming

To lay pipes, and I’m not free
Again until Friday, and that’s
Too late, Uncle replied. Anyway,
Colin doesn’t mind, do you,
Colin? No, Uncle, you said,

A sense of dread tiptoeing up
Your spine and fear of the dark
Creeping into your youthful
Mind. Aunt went off to the
Kitchen muttering, closing

The door with a slam. Uncle
Smiled like a drowning man,
Taking a deep inhalation of
His unlit pipe, a cold sense
Of unfulfilment biting at him,

The wedding vows pulling at
His sleeve, reminding, making
Him aware of the gentle tick
Tuck of his life’s clock fair
Nibbling in the evening air.

Reviews

[ANTO]

I knew from the off - from the title and preamble that I'd like this one. So much humour and then I feel guilty about laughing when I hit the final stanza like a car careering into a bollard.

I can see Father Mulligan gently coercing the man - and he not wanting to say no - racking up brownie points for when he hits the pearly gates. Like Darby O'Gill who was given the music of the Bell when he brought a bell from an outlying village to be placed in Rathcullen chapel.

"Uncle
Smiled like a drowning man, " - reminds me of Wilfred Owens Dulce est decorum est (an ecstasy of fumbling).

Im a fan Terry

[Terry Collett]

Thank you, ANTO

[just rose.]

I love the penultimate lines of this and the rhyme/halfrhyme of making/tick/tuck/fair/air to the poem's end, which reminds me of Blake. The way that you run dialogue and action through the breaks in the stanzas is also very engaging. This is a very visceral poem but you feel the spiritual subtext too -- workboots and ghosts and the promises we make.