Katherine Spat

It wasn't "God Save the Queen" she heard
from the Irish Military Band
but dirge from the foggy dew
for rebels of the Easter Rising

every time a trumpet blew
on the day the entourage rode in
"having shat upon the Republic
Da would have said," said Katherine.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" she spat
that there'd be no confusion with prayer;
she prays but once a year Easter Week,
chanting "terrible beauty" by Yeats,

the only two words of the poem she knew
that contort whenever she says them
an erstwhile beautiful face
that curses God and the Queen.