Young folk aren’t aware
Of how bad the world can be
Young folk away from home
First taste of liberty
Making friends and clubbing
Walk home in the dark
Never make it to their door
Somewhere a dog will bark
It shouldn’t be like this we say
Everyone should be free
To walk the streets at night time
We prize our liberty
But the night is made for prowlers
And wolves are out in packs
The innocent deer is hunted
Later we find the tracks
True crime stories tell us
How vicious folk can be
The lonely isolated man
Will take your liberty
Emancipated women
Totally unaware
Of the violent men around them
Men who do not care
Brian Fahy
28 August 2022
+ I have watched recently a spate of short films on true crime: all of them attacks and murders of young women. The effect on me was to make me feel very unhappy, depressed even. One story is one too many. But many of these crimes are committed in the dark of night, when young women are returning home from a night out. They are unaware of just how dangerous it is at that time of night. Our modern culture of ‘freedom’ has blinded us to the ancient truth of human wickedness.
Erris Poetry 