Friday, November 18th, 2022
Peace came in the door
and sat down beside me
and said how glad it was to see me,
genuinely, and to finally meet my wife,
I knew I must take its hand
though I did not know who I would be
in the absence of all I had built
its belligerent opposite into.
Peace came in the door.
I did not know its face
my high wall against it
had served longer
than anyone in Long Kesh –
twenty seven years –
and bore much graffiti
but I knew the name it told me was true
and I had to take its hand.
A much smaller man than I remember
and so, I realised, now was I
the day Peace sat down among us
and said it went by my Father’s name.
