cleanse song

a voice carried on the chill air, its source a shirted Irishman
who paced the pavement and sang,
his words echoing from the buildings ahead and behind -

a hymn, a simple chorus,
whilst our fellow travellers shrank away
and averted their eyes -

i leaned my head on the cool plastic of the shelter
and remembered the country almost united
under a sky of flags -

and in the lanes where once we ran,
for just a moment the wonder
touched the ground.