William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD

THE LISMORE DOOR

I see again the roses growing, round the door
As Bob, Joe and I went to the town of Lismore
‘T was where our Dad was born and raised
The place he oft told about, and praised

Where he and Aunt Peg homeward ran
When shot at by the Black and Tans
The bullet holes are still in the wall
Me and Joey were both appalled!

It was just a simple row housing flat
On Botany Bay Lane – imagine that!
In nineteen seventeen the twins lay
Dying because of the flu, Bridget stopped crying

Bridey left for London to have some fun
When Grandpa died in nineteen twenty one
At six, dad was placed, in a convent school
Where the nuns were mean frustrated and cruel

They beat him because he wet the bed
They were very cruel – that’s what Dad Said
Dad came to Canada when he was thirteen
He remembered Ireland – like it was a dream!

So I see Bob standing there by the Lismore Door
Where the Bibles and Gallaghers lived long before
I think of my Grandfather who had been to war
And who now lays buried in the town of Lismore!

Bob Willbond – at the Lismore Door