By Mary Mullett, of Gibson Road, High Wycombe

1830, Stark and staring,

Came the cry of religion,

Blood red their enemies,

The white cold snow precision,

Like pistols at dawn,

Invited them in.

God's child is hardened

To the brutality of life,

But lives for his father,

When at the sign of the cross

Is cut down with a knife.

Dead rabbits perform,

In the dead of night,

As the sky is painted black,

And the silver stars alight.

The New York city men

Were proud of their ghost

Proud of their fathers,

And the shroud

Of their forefathers most.

1846, black, white, all nations

Came to fight for the American Civil War,

Slavery abolished,

It was no more,

On their hands

Spilled the blood

Of many people,

No respect for any law.

We remember

The star spangled banner,

And America today.

May God protect her

And her beauty,

Everyday.

January 23, 2003 10:00