27 Days Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

On Friday 24th September 1943
My father wrote a letter
To his brother in which
He described how my mother
Had joined him during the previous weekend
At Silecroft in Cumbria
As he took a few hours leave from
RAF Millom where he was
Training on Avro Ansons
To join a Lancaster Bomber Squadron
That would take the war home to Berlin.

I was born on 9th June 1944
And the babyMed Calculator
Puts my conception date as
Around Friday 17th September 1943,
With sex likely no more
Than a week earlier at the most
So I think we can pretty much agree
That it was the Friday, and incidentally
In the following June I was also
Born on a Friday - ‘with far to go'.

So here's the sad part
He was killed 14th October 1943.
This means an overlap
Of 27 days which is hardly a blink.
Just now my third and fourth sons
Who are eleven and twelve years-old
Have come in for cuds in their jimjams
Having interrupted my musings
Lucky me, lucky them
But it's good to remember those 27 days
And let the four of us share looks and hugs.