FAMILY TREE

Peter Woodgate 

He spread it on the table

His hard work was complete

Years investigating

It really was a feat.

His fingers wandered over names

Of families long since dead,

A lineage of ancestors

Joined by the lines, a thread

That linked him to all those names,

Names he hoped would show

Ancestors he’d be proud of

But a quiet sigh “oh no.”

For it revealed the workhouse

Ladies of the night too,

Of course, another word was used

He couldn’t believe it was true.

But as he traced worse was to come

two of them, it seemed, were hung.

Another was a pirate

And several in the clink

“I cannot bear all this disgrace”

He began to think.

It’s time then that I changed for work

Go and earn an honest living

Disgusted by what he had seen

His mood was not forgiving.

He left to work his nightshift

With a sure and honest belief

His trade was skilled and profitable,

As a burglar and a thief.

 

Copyright Peter Woodgate