Under Donard
© By Gráinne Tobin
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I put on the peace like a warm overcoat in the October chill
John Wilson Foster
Weans happed against the All Souls’ Night wind
Huddle with their parents’ arms around them
Where galaxies of District Council stars
Glamorously explode above the patient crowd
In reckless fountains and cascades of light,
Sparklers displayed on velvet sky and mountain.
Searchlights spin, rockets and Catherine wheels
Illuminate the gasping, flinching faces
As they get used to bangs that mean no harm,
And volunteers, smiling in Day-Glo tabards,
Collect small change in buckets. Now hold steady
As flying bomblets burst, gunpowder clouds
Benignly fall to earth like common incense.
From: Banjaxxed, Summer Palace Press, 2001