Different War
Falls Road. Barbed wire walls. Barred windows
An ’80’s paint-flaked door swings to and fro,
creaking in night stillness
Wide eyes, search the darkness
A presence, palpable
Little comes to the eye, save for the gleam
of spit and polished high-gloss boots
A faint awareness
Heartbeat. Deafening. The Silence
Cigarette smoke clings to the air
A sudden flash – light lands on the rifle butt
Something rustles in garden shrubbery – breaking cover
they fall in, exit to the crackle and hiss of a radio call
‘Come in
Romeo-Victor-Hotel’. … …
Feet away, babies and children settle to sleep in cots,
metal bars smoothed to the touch, with the passage of time
Exhausted parents lay down to take their rest
floor mattresses, make-shift beds
Desperate, for one night – free from heavy footfall,
distant voices, the whir and drone of vehicles on tired streets
That Door. Bangs. Shut !
Kate O’Shea
