You were Catholic
I was Protestant
But I could have been Jewish
You could have been Muslim
Your family could have been Israeli
Or mine Palestinian
You could have been white
I could have been Asian.
We lived on the same street
We went to different schools
I wasn't allowed to go to your's
Not the right religion
Or something.
And you didn't want to travel
Twenty miles to come to mine.
We lived across the road
We crossed paths
When our schools
Had cross community days
And laughed at the irony.
We played, we laughed
Until the day
The bombs went off.
The phonecall came
Your mum or mine
I can't remember.
Get home as quick as you can
Both of you.
We ran.
We got lost,
Familiar roads cordoned off.
This might take a while.
A six mile walk, to make it two miles home
Through the countryside.
Maybe this isn't so bad after all,
We stopped for coke and tayto crisps.
Was it your group
Or my group
Blowing up our town.
Why does it matter?
You or me
Yours or mine.
The bombs didn't care.
Nor do I.
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The musings of a wannabe psychologist, trying to make a difference in the world - thoughtfully.
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1 comment:
Lovely poem... Oh kiddo. I hear your worry and fear, and can understand some ... many old feelings coming back. I felt very... like I did in Ireland in the seventies, for a time after that september day. A Quaker said he refound his belief in peace testimony after seeing the film "Bloody Sunday"... he hadn't been to Derry, hadn't been to Ireland... I went to the film... maybe should not have. I knew most of the people portrayed in the film, and they were portrayed in a cartoony way... but, it was the grainy pastel ectocrome film it was shot in. that was the film we all used in the seventies. Dear Friend... I sat in the theatre and wept... embarassed to be doing so... but it was all there again for me and I could not stop.
Oh, CA... these time will pass. During the second world war, there was a book by the woman who led the resistance in France, Madelene. It was titled, "this night will pass" I often think of that title when I look at these days when there seems no hope of peace... but emagine thouse days. Emagine when it seemed that there was no stoping Hitler and the world had gone mad. Our leaders are all crazy, and the people crazy with fear.
Party, work for peace, get loud... but party. Party hearty and live ... this is the time we live in, and we can't let the bastards all around us keep us from living while we do the work of changing the world and not being changed by it... so live, laugh and sing and dance... and take time for life, peace and care. Think of the Yippies. F* em if they can't take a joke, they should have pantsed Hitler at Nueremberg.
Peace
lor
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