And in this fierce, proud land,
you were carried
on the shoulders of the people
as you wished to be;
in that consummate mood
you could never have faltered.

So when did you notice
our lakes were freezing?
When the girls stopped sending roses
or when the dead lay scattered
with Loyalist red wounds.

‘Does death
decay handsome features?'
we asked,
and in questioning
we put barbed wires
to their ardent lies.

But modified to mock
our slumbering justice,
the RUC marked
our troubled city.

They scrutinised, like spies,
each move we made,
we could hear their raven voices.

Thus, we enlisted.