Your valediction still rings her ears,
and echoes the sighs
of the wind's lonliest,
with the sigh of her soul.
And all the tears
that years can provide
have passed,
and helped her scorn her lonliness:
the black hole,
the missing corner of a heart
that splintered
and shattered,
mid a servile folly long ago.



The spark from your words
has rekindled her fire:
churned her insides
and fired up
a desire in her heart,
and hope in her soul.
She'll lay there in bed
in the humid of night:
stare through the lamplight's
flickering light:
And pray for the days to pass.
And pray for a story re-told.



Penned by:
~ Paddy Gallagher ~
Castlefin park, C'derg,
Tyrone, N. Ireland
© copyright, 2003 (all rights reserved)

Author's Comments:
"A remarkable true story of the treachery
of conventional cultural practices".