Kyiv verses
These lines are written
With the finish still unknown
To this Russian war from hell
Unleashed by the mad Putin.
We thought for years that wars
Were prisoners of the history books
Film titles long enshrined
In the concrete of the mind.
Yes, we heard of foreign battles
Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan
But they were over ‘there’
Outside our conscious zone.
The big battles were all fought
All soldiers dead, fifty years ago
The heroes of war movies
Not the here and now.
We fought our battles on the screens
With popcorn in our armchairs
Not in blood in army trenches
Not with people we recognized.
Now it’s real, now it’s human
Now it’s close and personal
The West is fighting hard
With fair Ukraine as cover.
There is the chance of a mistake
A careless lighter finds the grass
A conflagration that consumes us all
The dice is thrown, the ball’s in play.
This war has shown us that the stakes
Rise higher all the time
Our colours lie nailed to the mast
To achieve a peace that lasts.
April 19th
You have no idea
You have no idea what it is to give your young life
To the service of the Lord in your teenage years
When friends are busy tracing steps
Across a college or an office floor.
You’ve never asked and indeed why would you?
What it’s like to turn your back on life
When life has just begun and you have come
To harvest early fruits that freedom brings.
Sunday afternoons not spent at football matches
But in tidy rooms where disinfectant
Mingles with the scent of weekend incense
And a Sunday silence lies flat and still.
You haven’t faced the final questions
Time and again from earnest preachers
Who speak of hell that will consume us
If we fail to clear our conscience.
Lives of serenity steeped in anxiety
Weeks of silence but the voices echo
In the nights, lonely and abandoned
When our lives escape our grasp.
Lived against the cliff of time
When eternity starts each sentence
When we hope that God or heaven
Has inspired this solo journey.
Is all of this a waste of time and youth?
Would we be better in the pub on Friday night?
This God that seems to come and go
Can prove elusive when we join the fight.
It’s ups and downs of course
There is no refuge when we leave the world
It follows us and gives us joys and pains
We cannot leave our true selves, we hope.
Saints and sad men now our companions
Some should leave and some should stay
One thing for sure, it takes some courage
To stay the course or call it a day.
May in Dun Laoghaire
Minding my own business, heading for a haircut
Locking up my bike when a lovely voice behind
Captures me and people stand and listen
This superb summer day in Dun Leary centre.
Turning back, I find some change
And leave it on her jacket
While she moves seamlessly
From Sinatra to Flamenco.
It gives me pleasure to see who gives
And who passes as she sings her repertoire
Young and old, yes, mostly old
Who slowly bend and toss a coin.
Old ladies with umbrellas on a sunny day
Just in case the forecast proves false again
Give their widows mite while their silver hair
Shines in the bright noonday sun of May.
This piece of heaven arrives without a warming
Like nearly all the best things - a surprise
A voice that’s rich enraptures the builder’s crew
Sitting in the sun, captures me and you.
She sings in English and in Spanish
And while we ponder which magic part of Spain
She sings an Argentinian air for compatriots
Who embrace with double kiss and dance for fun.
St Michael’s church a backdrop
Pigeons hunt for crumbs from school kids
Tradesmen stop awhile whistling the familiar tune
Only in Dun Laoghaire will you hear a girl from Buenos Aires sing.
Surprises
I surprised my darling with a flower
And she thought it lovely
And thought it better than
Expensive presents for her birthday.
I like Jesus because he too
Did what was not expected
He healed the poor and blind
He dined with the rejected.
Mixing with the wrong sort
Getting up the noses
Of the genteel people
Who lived in better houses.
Get rid of him they did
But only three days later
He surprised his friends and critics
By rising from the chamber.
We cannot plan our happiness
That comes when we’re not looking
It comes as a surprise
It comes when we’re not asking.
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