Painting Fakes

Billions have staked their futures on her But she is dying The death of a hundred billion cuts. Poisoned slowly in the wastes of her own entrails Roasted on a low fire Gasping for breath in an atmosphere of unknown gases While her killers bicker over what remains. Aeons of patient craft, slow shaping, intricate artistry Erased in the blinking of a geological eye. The stars look on, and weep. Elsewhere, another star is born.

On the Hill of Tara all four points Stretch to far horizons. The sheep are lords of all they survey, And the mounds and gullies sing of former glories. The tourists dance around the phallus Singing of glories to come. At Newgrange the inscrutible dead Sleep the sleep of millennia, Protecting the secrets of their strange carvings. After so much labour, Carting stones so many miles, Rolled on makeshift logs Lifted labouriously into place So the sleepers within can catch the fleeting sun To light their eternal darkness. In every town there is a reminder Of the days long gone And of the days hardly gone - The fight with the English, The bombings, the murders, The Protestant churches firmly locked. Things grow and change, The golden arches beside the Boyne, The half built houses on every street The "yes" and "no" to Europe at every junction, The English papers, the European soccer, The Chinese students walking the streets. Time marches, the ...

I thought you might enjoy some extracts from the journal I've been keeping on my travels. The monks chant, their drone puctuated by cymbals, quickened by the building, fading pounding of the drum. Behind their striking purple, their gaudy green and yellow, worshippers bow in street clothes, shoes in plastic shopping bags, some kneeling, telling over beads, holding out bags and packages for the mysterious blessing of the fire. Above, the fierce god in his blue war paint scowls at his worshippers, his blue attendants matching his ferocity, brandishing sword and chain, fiery halo and pointed fangs. Yet around the walls his worshippers remain calm, unafraid, seated in their socks slippers stowed carefully beneath the sepia sky. Outside, the fierce sun shocks us out of winter. The carp beg beneath the bridge. The blossoms defy stereotype. The old man smiles a greeting, or a comment, or perhaps asks a question I can never answer. Later, on the bus, the yo...