«Troubles»

Turtles

A cubit-wide turtle acting the bin lid

by the side of the canal

conjures those Belfast nights I lay awake, putting in a bid

for the police channel

as lid-bangers gave the whereabouts

of armoured cars and petrol-bombers lit one flare

after another. So many of those former sentries and scouts

have now taken up the lyre

I can’t be sure of what is and what is not.

The water, for example, has the look of tin.

Nor am I certain, given their ability to smell the rot

once the rot sets in,

that turtles have not been enlisted by some police forces

to help them recover corpses.

Paul Muldoon, Irlanda do Norte, 1951,  in  Troubles