THE BEOTHUK IN IRELAND (for Ron Hynes)

“The Irish

wiped them out

when we came here

we drove cattle at them

drove them over cliffs

into the icey, churning ocean

men women and children”

the man who told me that

‘the man of a thousand songs’

wrote Sonny’s Dream

that intercontinental folksong

“ jaysus thought me Dad wrote that,

he sang it so often”

says I, to cod him - Ron laughed along.

It was March in Newfoundland

we were outside the pub

outside for a moment the music.

chatting about the Irish & Ireland.

It was snowing,

the miserable street was half-buried in snowdrifts.

The last one of all of the Beothuk

known, supposedly, as Shanawdithit,

died out

in 1829

according to wikipedia.

There’s nothing more

I feel like saying to you now about

what the Irish have achieved in Canada.

You can say it if you like.

I’d rather go mute.

I’d rather have my tongue pulled out

and exported in a can of tongues

and shite.

Anyway it’s far too cold.

The world’s too cold for yabber.

In Ireland it’s Easter

and snowing

and t’will snow again,

snow again, again, and deeper

until the streets are white

until the hills are blue

until all our crosses, croaghs and spires

are blinded white

beneath a glacier

until there’s no-one left to chat and fake

nothing shameful left 

to cover.