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sorry indeed

by Peter Humphreys

I was awakened
by police horses'
hooves chafing
the cobbles
striking sparks
of noise
in protest
to their enclosure
but
this was London
not the level meadows
of Carlow
where I spent my youth
beneath a wide swept sky

helicopters
hanging in the air
watching
listening
like the electric fan
in Apocalypse Now
not the dragonflies
that flirted
along the banks
of the goodly Barrow
in my childhood
but like Belfast
when fire engulfed
that blessed city
from end
to end

I lie here
on the bed
taunted
by phantasms
as the Pope
drives by
in his bullet proof limo
protecting him
from the non-faithful
as Lenin
was whisked
to Petrograd

why am I having
these dark thoughts
on a bright sunny day
blessed by September cool

maybe it was
because
the Pope said
sorry
but
sometimes
sorry
just ain't enough

blistered blighted
lives destroyed
through the roots
of our faith
never again to flower
in autumn sunshine
from generation
to generation
innocence
trust
lost

sorry
indeed

09/19/2010

Author's Note: I was reared in the Roman Catholic tradition. A few years' ago, I helped establish the research capacity of the Irish Commission into Child Abuse and I am so proud of that contribution. But, to do so, I had to read individual victim testimonies in their thousands. That changed me. I cannot understand why so many people, but not everyone, from the highest to the lowest in authority stayed quiet. Never again.

Posted on 09/19/2010
Copyright © 2024 Peter Humphreys

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by George Hoerner on 09/19/10 at 08:13 PM

A great write Peter! We all should be forced to read these testimonies and to pass them on to our kin to be read over and over again until it is understood. Man can be cruel. We should also need to hear the cries of those who starve to death every day and those torn apart by bombs from either side. Again great write.

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