Misericordia

Duffy was begging for birdseed

So thought Peter Kay

In fact she wanted mercy

Don’t we all

Mercy misericordia

Pity from the heart

That’s not birdseed

A more important call

 

Jesus tells his critics

Don’t talk of sacrifice

Of rectitude and yes how good you are

Engage your heart a little

The head can’t do it all

Cold justice will not heal the way we are

 

A mother of a murdered girl

Heard the murderer confess

Expressing sorrow for the things he’d done

So she wrote to him a letter

He in turn wrote back

He felt he was being treated like a son

 

She gave the correspondence to police

To give in turn to psychoanalysts

I want this correspondence

To help us understand

And save more victims

And even help the man

 

This the power of mercy

To see beyond the fray

To help us live our lives as from the heart

Justice must be done we know

But not the cruel kind

Mercy is the way that we can go

 

Brian Fahy

21 September 2021