This month we feature two locals in our poets’ corner: Jo Young and Colin Thompson. Colin is a longstanding member of the Broughton District History Group. Jo is an aspiring poet who uses her work to express the thoughts and emotions she has experienced in her personal and professional life.
If you would like us to feature your poems in Love Wrexham Magazine, please send some examples of your work to info@love-wrexham.com and we may be able to feature them in a future issue!
A Befriending Call
by Jo Young
The person I phone each week
Is mature of age – but not one I would call antique
She is often depressed and she feels alone
But is it her life she has to atone?
I remind her often she can now work Zoom
Keeping in regular contact with her son and daughter she does bloom
But they are not here she states
Keeping in contact with different time zones is difficult she often berates
But who can help me, who have I got?
Is this my lot?
No I say
This is why you continue to stay
You have so much to offer and to give
You still have a vital life to live
Three times a week you were volunteering at that charity shop
Twice a week the singing group – where you were also known to bop!
Saturday afternoon was knit and knatter
Then on to chips and fish in batter
And what of those friends you meet for Sunday lunch
Or is it brunch…?
You have no time to be depressed
This pandemic is only temporary – so don’t get stressed
Because with me, you are always keen to laugh and joke
At people and at situations – and even your bloke!
With a smile she acknowledges what’s said and then says
I am not dead… I have plenty of time to play!
Last Letter Home
by Colin Thompson (first published by the Broughton District History Group, 2015)
Dear Mum and Dad
I need you to be brave
For this letter might reach you from the grave
As I lie here in my hospital bed
With pieces of shrapnel in my head
I can only look back at the good times we had
Down the Moss Valley with you and dear old Dad
As you lay the picnic blanket on the ground
Dad and I got the ball and had a kick around
Sadly, I can’t see that happening anymore
For I fear I am knocking on heaven’s door
But before they lay me down to rest
There is one last request
As a tribute to me and my lost mates
Please put our names on the Brynteg Gates
As that would mean so much to me
For we will go down in history
Your ever-loving son,
Mc
In memory of all the brave men, women and boys from this area who died in the First World War – ‘We will remember them’.
Don’t forget to check out our other poets’s corner features.
