Fear And Fire Poem by Frank Bana

I pause before the Sunday news
Don't say a word this morning please
Let the dawn pass undisturbed
I'm like a rolling stone, my dear
How does it feel? So wonderful
To hear the Irish songs of love
The cobble streets, the ploughman's horse
The woman with the golden hair
Whose arms are open, waiting there

In another time than this
The wounds and chains, deep on flesh
Claimed me with their ribbon scars
And still I have a tender heart
Those stripes have never killed my dreams
I turn the music loud and fair
The dog comes leaping down the stairs
The morning in her infancy
Yet I've been writing this for years

Then crawling down the curtain rail
First comes fear, followed by fire
Fear and fire the wicked twins
Summoning smoke from the ash within
That smoldered since there was a child

A frightened child behind my eyes
Sometimes ashamed, seldom despised
A child that wants to cry and hide
Crawl into cupboards, escape to the wild
This child longs to dance on soft bare feet
To befriend the earth and protect itself
Not from worlds within but from worlds outside

This child breaks toys, wants to change its ways
Never finds the place it aspires to be
Saves old clothes and electricity
Works hard for a little prize and praise
Like a minor chief with no tribe about
Dreams of times both better and worse
Short-sighted, willful and perverse
Fortune a curse it can't do without

This child does not care what details you know
There are hiding places left to go
It's not about to transport you away
Too early for night and deep in the day
This child is no longer afraid of the fire
It's approaching evening time outside
Here must be done as the prophets require

And for me, there's times I'm still on my own
Almost unknown, no direction home
And it feels so great, but then I think it insane
To be silent in waiting for love again
And that's what I'm asking, and I want more
Than fear and fire, ageing and pain
I've served my masters, worked my fill
I've been keeping watch on an empty hill
Let me reach for the flame in the gathering gloom
And I'll witness you here in this darkened room.