Pendle's Unseen War
Tap tap boom… sheep scattered like shrapnel
Brian Dunn’s instant memorial smoke rose
from his peaty wet death hole, roots
lumps of peat and ling fell like black roses over his body
and the blood splattered fan of shattered gritstone
Three lads Sunday walk, October 1950
Derrick Shaw’s lower arm was brast away tapping
the mortar bomb on the wall, saying “perhaps this one will go…..”
his life and army training wasted, he survived a fortnight
Fun was blown out of Brian Boreham’s life aged 14
witnessing the nasty death and maiming; badly injured and
stunned off his feet, he dealt with peacetime battlefield horrors
Split second ear-bleeding noise, blinding flame front
massive air overpressure blast and burning bone breaking shrapnel
Silent mundane looking ordnance, inflicting instant long-term trauma
young Brian’s tearless mourner, his dog Molly
sniffed his blackened cooling remains and torn clothing, wagging her tail
whining, stopping and returning several times - to confirm he was extinct
The lethal incident was raised in parliament
there was no human enemy in Pendle’s long war
munitions and tank trap targets shattered shards still remain
After live firing practice the hill was twice declared safe
but a mortar’s boom still cracked Pendle’s silence
resonating around two families - for decades
Where the WW2 troops were stationed at Brogden farm
an overt regiment of tank traps stand to attention roadside
another unit laid prone in a mass grave, dam a Sabden lodge
holding waters drained through the dark deadly ground
inert unknown markers of Pendle’s unseen war
waiting - for a Heritage blue plaque medal.
Copyright © Andrew Collinson | Year Posted 2019
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