(Another) Flower of the Field Cut Down

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Lyra Catherine McKee was a journalist from Northern Ireland who wrote for several publications about the consequences of the Troubles. She also served as an editor for MediaGazer, a news aggregator website. On 18 April 2019, she was fatally shot during rioting in the Creggan area of Derry.

I never met Lyra McKee and circumstances at the time have always prevented my visiting Northern Ireland. But I have met other, similarly inspiring people from Belfast and its surrounds who have made me particularly sensitive to the toll The Troubles and their lasting consequences for the good people of Northern Ireland; some might disapprove of an Englishman having written the poem below, but as any poet will tell you … if you gotta write, you gotta write.

(Photo taken from the Internet)

(ANOTHER) FLOWER OF THE FIELD CUT DOWN

A journalist, she died on the job,

cut down in her prime,

murdered by a self-styled New IRA

hell bent on fanning flames

of unrest plaguing Northern Island

since its Assembly collapsed

She’d hoped to marry a partner.

had even bought the ring;

a woman in love and openly gay,

winning hearts and minds,

a crusader for change in a society

(still) in the grip of its past

Robbed of a future, by a single shot

fired in pointless anger

by someone unlikely to be qualified

to explain their purpose 

other than celebrating dark times

in the absence of any light

A lively funeral, various politicians

from all divides mixing

with her family and friends to applaud

the life of a woman

eager for communities and society

to come together in peace 

A priest challenged those present 

to explain why it had taken

a young woman's death for politicians

to unite in condemnation

when loath to meet up, debate, see

to shaping all she stood for

A standing ovation spoke (far) louder

than any words at Stormont

or Westminster could begin to utter

for party leaders fearful

of a breaking out of  common sense

likely to damage media profiles

Consensus, that Lyra’s untimely death

should prove a turning point

for moving on in its social and political

aspirations, not to satisfy

any dogma written on tablets of stone

but a new Here-and-Now ...

To be or not to be? A question folks

of a political bent always ask

the world over, whether better to please

some of the people some

of the time given no hope of pleasing 

all the people all the time

Politics, a good-bad-ugly play on words

meant to engage or disengage,

arm, disarm, even charm where a case

for ends justifying means,

especially when it can mean bridges 

over dark water rebuilt to last

Whatever, some deaths become milestones

in any country’s history,

reminding us how and why someone died,

dates and faces inspirational,

if taken root in mind-body-spirit or left

to haunt us for our shortcomings

Copyright R. N. Taber 2019