- 40 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Butcher's Dozen
About this book
To mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and its commemoration in Derry in January 2022, Carcanet is proud to publish a new edition of Thomas Kinsella's Butcher's Dozen, with a prologue from the Saville Report, an epilogue from the Prime Minister's House of Commons apology, and a new author's note.
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Yes, you can access Butcher's Dozen by Thomas Kinsella in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & European Poetry. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
I went with Anger at my heel
Through Bogside of the bitter zeal
– Jesus pity! – on a day of cold and drizzle and decay.
A month had passed. Yet there remained
A murder smell that stung and stained.
On flats and alleys – over all –
It hung; on battered roof and wall,
On wreck and rubbish scattered thick,
On sullen steps and pitted brick.
And when I came where thirteen died
It shrivelled up my heart. I sighed
And looked about that brutal place
Of rage and terror and disgrace.
Then my moistened lips grew dry.
I had heard an answering sigh!
There in a ghostly pool of blood
A crumpled phantom hugged the mud:
‘Once there lived a hooligan.
A pig came up, and away he ran.
Here lies one in blood and bones,
Who lost his life for throwing stones.’
More voices rose. I turned and saw
Three corpses forming, red and raw,
From dirt and stone. Each upturned face
Stared unseeing from its place:
‘Behind this barrier, blighters three,
We scrambled back and made to flee.
The guns cried Stop, and here lie we.’
Then from left and right they came,
More mangled corpses, bleeding, lame,
Holding their wounds. They chose their ground,
Ghost by ghost, without a sound,
And one stepped forward, soiled and white:
‘A bomber I. I travelled light –
Four pounds of nails and gelignite
About my person, hid so well
They seemed to vanish where I fell.
When the bullets stopped my breath
A doctor sought the cause of death.
He upped my shirt, undid my fly,
Twice he moved my limbs awry,
And noticed nothing. By and by
A soldier, with his sharper eye,
Beheld the four elusive rockets
Stuffed in my coat and trouser pockets.
Yes, they must be strict with us,
Even in death so treacherous!’
He faded, and another said:
‘We three met close when we were dead.
Into an armoured car they piled us
Where our mingled blood defiled us,
Certain, if not dead before,
To suffocate upon the floor.
Careful bullets in th...
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Contents
- from The Saville Report
- Butcher’s Dozen (1972)
- from Bloody Sunday, Prime Minister David Cameron’s Parliament Statement, 15 June 2010
- Note on the Poem by Thomas Kinsella
- Also by Thomas Kinsella
- Copyright