Taken

by Déirdre Orme

Time turns to gold – the fields of barley.
As with the wind of change renaissance women sway.
Bloodline & grace dancing
with our nation’s finest strapping sons.
Merriment & song,
draining our the volley of destiny’s cries & growling guns.

Ascending the height, hand in hand,
love…
outrunning the black & tan.
Sisters and comrade brothers both in equal measure,
taken.

Pulses skipped,
across sheets & sea,
As love would bleed as ink.
Charm & passion never to fall out of fashion,
or so one truly vows to think.

Of you –
He was…
taken
Oh dearest Kitty, rest easy now,
from what troubled thee…
A Patriot’s lover’s curse of heartache,
loss & taunted wish of liberty.
For, years mark time
and time marks years…
taken.

Reproduced with kind permission of the author. This poem was composed in a Poetry as Commemoration workshop held in association with Longford Archives at Edgeworthstown Community Library, in October 2023.  The workshop was led by writer Mary Melvin Geoghegan.