Operation White

In the depths of silence
Clandestine in your hollow
Existence finds another place within
And through the night outside
History marches yet
Interminable time; the morning brings.

The growth of spirit stunted
As the jackboot breaks! the reed
Intent upon
The triumph of the will.
The darkness still accedes
To the coming of the light
Impatiently awaiting
Time to kill

Fractious are these elements
Of earth and fire
Upon this angry ground
We came to be
Wrenched from its mighty grip
We harness power
To define a place
In eschatology

But to sleep
Perchance to dream
In timeless otherworldliness
A place still unconquered
In our keeping
A rude intruder
Comes the dawn
This precious space
Not lent for long
Outside the day is young
And time is fleeting.

^

Biography

Paul O'Prey was born in Belfast in 1965 and grew up on the  Ormeau Road. He left school at sixteen to take a job in the  building trade as an apprentice joiner and left Belfast when he was 24  to live and work in London, where he spent six years before  returning to Dublin to work in 1996. He is currently working in the  computer industry as a technician. His work has previously appeared in Electric Acorn 1 , Electric Acorn 7 and Electric Acorn 8.