War Murals

It was the night of Halloweens at the riverside Quay of Queens.

But three years after the millennium the moon was high above,

Its light shone upon the Big Fish, where Oxford and Donegall roads clash.

Above a stone jetty a crack grew on the mural of a dove.

Dirt fell from the crack and pushed brick apart, revealing a door and splitting the art.

Out from the door walked a woman, stepping on an empty drink can.

She tapped the soft-drink can away, disgusted with the man-made waste.

This was not her world anymore, forfeiting it an age before.

She ascended the nearby steps, deep-black hair flowing and grim-faced.

One hundred Irish Halloweens had passed since this Faerie last visited Belfast.

She was a herald, a Bansidhe, one of the ‘mythical’ Aos Sí.

Every century she came to assess humanity’s worth.

Armegin’s truce had remained strong, realms still split by the poet’s son.

She hoped for a day when man smiled and the Faeries could come out from the earth.

Now she observed in her garb of ashen looking for a person with compassion.

She viewed the Big Fish in moonlight. Despite man being the sea’s blight,

The giant statue acted as a tribute to nature and city.

The scales showed life’s true depictions, full of passion and convictions.

Most pictures were new to her, others she recognised with pity.

She sensed the joy, pain and maturity, the human’s desire for purity.

But it was too early to wish. The Faerie moved from the Fish.

Riverside walking along Donegall Quay, nothing seemed familiar.

New shops were now made out of glass, she could not see a blade of grass.

These places were open for the night’s celebrations, yet no bonefire.

To celebrate the Samhain festival, just liquor, she thought with disapproval.

She turned left quickly at High Street, moving quickly on her two feet.

From a passing machine, the drunkard Josh yelled, "Happy Halloween!"

The Faerie just increased her pace as she progressed down Castle Place.

She had to explore for at dawn she was called by the Fey unseen.

She sensed emotion and wisdom at last, as she reached Falls Road in Irish Belfast.

Falls Road was the same under her feet; clay brick buildings framing a wide street.

On windowless walls were murals, young art, political comments.

The technique was not important, they were not products of talent.

The paintings were new to the Bansidhe, products of new world order.

She sensed the raw feelings and emotions coming from the large acrylic notions.

One payed homage to a poet, surrounded by the constant threat.

The chains had been broken by a symbolic bird. A dove perhaps?

A rainbow of colour framed the wall, colours yet to lose their pall.

On another house, the same bird was breaking through some iron traps,

Gaelic revolutionary freedom. Mourning heartbreak caused by officialdom.

The Faerie walked on down Falls Road, moving past the places of abode.

She slowly strolled past a barbed-wire topped concrete fortification.

The wall was covered with murals. Staring into a gun barrel,

This art contradicted these people’s desire for destruction.

The beautiful murals had been painted on architecture thoroughly tainted.

Men of inhumanity threatening Milesian sanity.

Sky-blue areas listing the shadows of the innocent dead.

Support of foreign hunger strikes against unknown invading spikes,

While others had peaceful hand gestures by loyalist departed.

Distant leaders controlling Ireland, planting their flags into Milesian sand.

The Bansidhe smiled in delight; the futures of humans were bright.

Now the messenger had to return to the Faeries with the news

That would lead to prosperity and inter-world clarity.

The realms would combine together and the ancient treaty renews.

A new age would dawn for the sentient, one of magic and new development.

A large man approached the Faerie, his demeanour strange and eerie.

He spoke some rugged English and from his cloak he withdrew a knife.

She did not understand English, but knew the manner was deadly.

He quickly thrust the knife into her chest, promptly ending her life.