Gary Allen
Photograph of my father
A black and white photograph
taken during the war
he is standing with a friend
against a fishing-boat in Beirut
crew-cuts, shorts, bare bodies.
Tipping a cart in Cairo
oranges tumbling under the bright sun
rolling down the dusty back-streets
Arab curses, the flash of a blade
as they ran with laughter
and the sound of feet.
Teaching the barman how to box
while his friend rifled the till
driving his truck along dusty roads
running old Arabs out of the way
with a swerve - all this from a man
who couldn’t find Cairo on a map.
Singing Kevin Barry on parade for a bet
the sergeant screaming,
‘You’re a bloody Prod, Paddy,’
punching the sergeant in the mouth
dragged off to the glass-house
bread and water.
The dropping of cards in the back room
of a bar in Cairo
cheating? he probably was
and the Free French officer
pulled a gun on him
too quick, he hit the Frenchman
across the face with a bottle.
Cool beer in the insect buzzing heat
the whirling of the fan-blades
above his head
while in the terraced house
down by the railway-yard
his mother’s body was being laid-out.
Page(s) 21
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