You only have to hit someone
To know you should not do it
A teacher slapped me as a child
My mother made her rue it
Do not do to others
What you would not have done to you
A basic simple teaching
You can see that it is true
For you and I are fellows
We feel the same deep hurt
When someone strikes against you
Now a war will start
Its achievement is destruction
Nothing good will come
Avoid even the war of words
Better to keep ‘shtum’
Let all your deeds be positive
All your words affirm
Bring a healing balm
To all that is infirm
Be a power for goodness
Let the other see
You are a disciple of the Lord
Peace then let there be
Brian Fahy
21 May 2022
+ An infant teacher lost her cool one day and came along us children standing in a line at dinnertime and with a ruler slapped every child on the back of the legs. I went home with a red welt mark on my leg, which my mother saw. She went back to the school and told the head teacher to see it never happened again.
Violence of any kind is so completely destructive of all that is good. The first step for peace is ceasefire.
Erris Poetry 