Rushing towards the sound of gunfire
Skidding round (shells keening) a blind
Corner staying low some young fool slams
Into a dusty scholar: they pause, shake hands,
Dive for cover (shrapnel wasps) as half a row
Of too-close-for comfort tenements tumble:
“Quick,” says our fool, “Which side are you on?”
But the other replies, “How can I think of politics
Now that I’ve found” (whips out a book from
under his coat) “this ancient volume which
Conclusively proves that Isis worship
Mothered our cult of the Magdalene…”
Then tipping his hat as another street falls
He scuttles away through cordite and smoke
But will never quite disappear.
Kevin Patrick McCann
Illustration Nick Victor
* In 1871, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, the poor of Paris rose up in revolution: they were subsequently crushed and thousands were executed.