Why should two strangers
standing at the foot of the road
spell danger?
Isn't this Galway?
Far from the maddened crowd?
Is this not Mervue,
where the greatest fuss and hullabaloo ever known
was caused by a stray goddess
in a bus?
The phone -
'Is Brian there?'
'He's away at the moment.'
'Where could I reach him?'
'Who's calling?'
A mumbled name, not caught,
a Northern voice,
then that appalling suspicion;
I have to make a choice.
Sometimes I tell him -
and feel I've made a mistake.
Sometimes I don't -
and am sure I've made a mistake.
The very act of taking up the phone
makes me a potential betrayer.
Have I handed my friend over
to some sectarian slayer -
or have I thwarted a potential warner?
Jesus! - This is Galway City
and a hundred miles from the border!
'Don't let it get you down,' says Brian.
'Those who want me
know where to find me,
and those two down at the corner -
they're only Special Branch.'
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©Renate Mitchell. May not be reproduced in any form online or offline without explicit written permission.