I had a fight
With my school pal Kenny Thompson
On the crescent
We had a right set-to
I didn’t like to fight
But there’s a limit
When another lad is forever goading you
My mother came to stop me
Feeling anxious
But my father pulled her back
Keep well away
If you stop him you might well break his spirit
He’ll never learn to fight another day
Repression of my spirit
Would have shamed me
And Kenny would have laughed the whole way home
Instead we had a right ding-dong
And parted
The best of friends and life could carry on
As we grow
Our spirit finds a way of working
We can channel all our energies to good
And fight in other ways
And never shirking
The struggle so that we are understood
Brian Fahy
13 May 2021
Erris Poetry 