Alan .S. Jeeves

I Walk, This Day, This Haunted Land

I walk, this day, this haunted land

(Not far off, Mancunian city walls)

\'Neath my feet sprawls peaty sand ~

Overhead as evening falls,

The ghostly voice of children\'s calls.

 

This land, taciturn, calm and still,

A sombre place to garner thought;

A meditation of past ill ~

All the anguish time has brought ~

The mighty horrors, ever fraught.

 

Evoking days of deadly deeds,

Wicked sins of heretofore;

The ghostly voice of innocence pleads

You salute what happened, evermore,

Here in nineteen sixty four.

 

Infant souls, half concealed,

Ne\'er forgotten over time;

Three were found below this field

Buried under peat and lime ~

Reposing \'midst the moorland grime.

 

He walks, this day, this haunted land

(Not far off, Mancunia\'s city near)

He romps with others hand in hand ~

But spare a thought and weep a tear

For a lonely boy who still lies here. 

 

                                     ASJ