Belfast rain is cute
It monitors the water content
To fit to a daylong agenda
Cloud reinforcements wait low
on the Black Hills, if needed
You can recognise any native of Belfast
By the way they blink in the sunlight.

On the corner of Alfred street
Three young women intent on gossip
I stop and engage them with a grin
But no response or answering smile
There never is but I keep trying
If only to annoy

Peace lines on the Falls Road
Forty feet high, garlanded with razor wire
To keep the believers of the same book apart
A concrete canvas for the spray can artists
A collage of flags and paper heroes
Yeah, I get the message

Hey you! In the cut down uniform and mask
After crippling that kid for having a Proddy girlfriend
Do you get the pricks of conscious friend?
No worries, absolution is easy
Find any old man with a cell phone to god
Mumble a few Hail Mary’s and job done

My backup was close; with fear in his eyes
To late now mate, you shouldn’t have joined
A black cab turned the corner of Ross Street
I flicked the safety off on the SA80
Watching for an open back window
It passed by in a cloud of diesel fumes.

We scramble in the Landrover pick up
Soldier talk, sweat and the release of testosterone
We head for home behind the spider legged watchtowers
On the radio Diane Ross is warbling ‘Endless Love’
I push the off button—“Hey, I was listening to that”
“Not now” I said and lit up a Senior Service.