TC/0484

WERE YOU THERE?

Were you there when we thought it just might be
a cruel hoax or a simple human error?
Were you there when they maimed and tortured me
and filled our lives forever with bloody terror?

Were you there when I was taking my last breath
and my groans wafted to heaven as I fell?
Were you there when Satan with his band of death
drove into my home town, from Hell?

Were you there when the sunshine turned to rain
and I was dying down in Market Street?
Were you there when my blood flowed into a drain
from my broken body with no heartbeat?

Were you there when evil expanded its snarling jaws
and I cried out loud in my last hour of need?
Were you there when I was sacrificed for a cause
the moment Heaven suffered Hell to take a lead?

Were you there when they numbered all my bones
then help came with God's pity in their eyes?
Were you there when I was struck with glass and stones
And I had no time so say my last goodbyes?

Were you there when I was slain in my pram
and the world knew of my little innocence?
Were you there when they took my gran and mam
and we would have no future, hence?

Were you there when they chose to throw a dice
and a chance to plant that lethal charge?
Were you there for the glory and not a price,
Your bloody butchers! are you really at large?

Were you there when they toasted their own goal
and I drifted from earth into another time?
Were you there in the dark chambers of their soul
when they carried out that heinous crime?

Were you there on that terrible afternoon
on my first visit to your homely place?
Were you there when that visit was over soon
and I never again would see my dear native race?

Were you there when they crucified my town,
as the sun shone through a darkened cloud?
Were you there when they laid my body down
and my broken limbs slipped beneath a holy shroud?

Were you there when they broke my heart?
Jackie McGale,
23/08/1998

Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION

Ref: TC/0484

Published Date: 27-Aug-98