Belfast 1918 -- A Poem by Sheena Wilkinson

Today is 50 years since the Civil Rights march in Derry  the reaction to which is generally thought to have sparked off the NI Troubles  I wrote this poem in response to a photo of Belfast 1918, but 1968 and what came afterwards was very much in my mind too. 

Belfast 1918

I was never here before

At least not in these black-and-white

Silent movie days.

I won’t be born for fifty years.

These streets are not silent. Trams clatter

Past blank-blinded brick terraces

These streets are not sepia.

Nor do they run with the blood 

Of the thousands who have lately marched

Down them on their way to the Somme,

Though they will in time run red.