SUBJECT>Beal Na Mblath (CTG) POSTER>Christopher T George EMAIL>editorcg@yahoo.com DATE>1110905038 IP_ADDRESS>pcp02822717pcs.mtromd01.md.comcast.net PASSWORD>aaXga4uf0tS3k PREVIOUS> NEXT> 84854 84863 IMAGE> LINKNAME>Poetry by Christopher T George LINKURL>http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/index.htm

Beal Na Mblath

"There seems to be a malignant fate dogging the
fortunes of Ireland, for at every critical period
in her story the man whom the country trusts is
taken from her."

Michael Collins, 1922

The gray stone cross on the lonely road, snow and sleet
in my face: Beal Na Mblath, this valley known in English
as the Mouth of Flowers, the place of assassination
of the Big Fella, the Laughing Boy.

Sheep bleat in the fields, come running as I stare at the stone cross.
A fence of black iron surrounds the monument,
like the mystery that surrounds your death.

Who killed you with a single bullet to the head
as you rode in your staff car through the Valley of Death?
An assassin on the green hillside here at the Mouth of Flowers,
an irregular? Or one of your own men?

Christopher T. George