Kenosha

My earliest memory

A cowboy called Tom Mix

In comic books

A 1950s child

The garden and the fields of home

Saw little boys

With American accents

Running running wild

 

Weekends at the matinee

Cowboy films again

Shoot-outs in deepest Lancashire

American invasion

Troops and now the films

And always guns a-blazing

Bringing death so near

 

Last night I watched that film called Heat

De Niro and Pacino

1995 I know I’m late

Two hours in they rob a bank

Then it all goes wrong

And bullets blister through the air

Policemen die but all is fair

In games of guns and war

 

So Kenosha comes as no surprise

It’s an American scene so pure

Boys as vigilantes

The right to carry arms

The privilege of self-defence

Come on make my day

I’m here the pride of America

John Wayne the American way

 

Brian Fahy

20 November 2021