Six years to your name in 1851 there you were

Already miles from Ireland

In that cramped Campsie household

tight with lodgers… all lads from the pit.

Margaret….. after her mother

Not a scholar, just a daughter

And on that day the last of three alive.

Ten years gave you a spinners pay

And took away your Da

Soon filling you with firstborn

Life in your womb

But your X gave nothing away

And got precious little in exchange.

Another ten you traded in

For five mouths more

And then there were only four

And soon after just the three.

Braw twins sure must have give

Him a burst of pride what with

Double lines in the registrars hand

Penning his own name twice

Just as their separating

Certainly rent you in two instead

And then the wean

Gone before the thaw of Spring.

Years later I waited by your side

For the relief that never brought a change

Trudging on an injured foot

Are you sure it wasn’t your heart broke instead?

Where did you go then Maggie?

Where did you hide when I tried the hardest to find you?

Those lost years left me unsettled too

And fired a determination to know

Was the canal cold that September eve?

Did the wind whip at your turning hair?

Or was the moon shinin’ down o’er the calm

bringing a light like you’d never known before

So magnificent a glimmer

A strand of hope to go well

With your petite striped petticoat

And printed short gown.

I’ve found some of them Maggie

Ahhh…the boys always have been favored

You’d be so proud to know

yet they have their own stories to tell

And ample time in which to do so

Lambhill’s common ground

Rises unbroken and still

Yet it cannae hide your bit of spark

That ne’er could be snuffed out.

10-4-04 jsp