Now The Guns Have Gone Asleep

By AM Wednesday, July 12, 2023

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Brendan Curran ✒ with a poem from his expansive body of work.

23-December-2022

 Now The Guns Have Gone Asleep 

It’s easy to be a republican, now that the guns have gone asleep

The town is so much quieter, no army check points on each street

No need to go to bed each night, and fear the deafening thud

Of the jack boot on your front door, of a RUC sectarian thug

♞♜♝

You don’t listen to the wireless now, like you did morning noon and night

The struggle is all over now, except for political squabbles and sham fight

Bless The poor people in our community who opened up their doors

Let us hide our guns in their attics and underneath their floors

♞♜♝

Cast aside the freedom fighters, who once led our struggle strong

Imprisoned and their families broken, just remembered now in song

The prison criminals tag still follows them, every where they go

The modern day republicans don’t seem to want to know

♞♜♝

The volunteers who died in battle, some murdered by the state

Others sent out to fight with defective bombs, only knowing, when it was too late

Sleeping in strangers' houses each night, trusting in other people's faith

Hiding behind closed curtains, shielding from the informer fate

♞♜♝

But the sleeping guns were fought hard for, only grieving families know the price

To see the killers of their loved ones walk free, no one asking them their advice

But that’s the price of war for centuries, you wear the scars of the dead

Their face and smell follows you everywhere, even asleep in your bed

⏩ Brendan Curran, The Poet Without A Pen.