Telling

(County Antrim c1973)

Named for a saint she kneels,
prayers beading the night.
Only her fingers see in the Toome dark:
click-click-click
her devoted clepsidra, they listen
(for they were afraid for…)
Another town tonight, a nearer one tomorrow?
The look on his face,
 host to relatives unrelated
he stops the car, Out!
Unspoken hatred
(as it was in the beginning)
ricochets through their brain
(is now),
deaf to the adoring attrition
(and ever shall be?)
a ritual of decades.
World without end.