Goodbye to Brigid/An Agnus Dei

I take you by the hand. Your eyes,
Mirroring the traffic lights,
Are green and orange and red.

The Military lorries by our side
Drown out your child-heart
Thumping tired under the soot

-black thorn trees these
Exhaust-fumed grey greasy mornings.

My little girl, my Lamb of God,
I’d like to set you free from
Bitch Belfast as we pass the armed

-to-the-back-teeth barracks and
Descend the road into the school
Grounds of broken windows from

A spate of car-bombs, but
Don’t forgive me for not.

© Padraic Fiacc, Goodbye to Brigid/An Agnus Dei 1986

Padraic Fiacc, like many other parents, worried about what their children made of the tight security and bomb damage around them.