Ulster and Belfast (Minimoog, Pt 5)

Grade 5
saw us move once again
this time to Braeside

by bus
because a brick wall from Louis Riel Elementary
and Junior High

then under construction
had blown down
and killed a worker
so while the investigation proceeded
or more likely
while the wall was rebuilt
we attended Braeside Elementary
you see
where we were
introduced
to Mrs. Dawson
there was no end
to the Scots
who were marshalled
to teach

Mrs. Dawson
continued the drills
of basic facts
or times tables
and coached us along
when we mixed
11 times 12
with 8 times 9

and when she got sick
and a substitute was provided
we learned about the Troubles

and Catholics and Protestants
which none of us knew of
it turned out
the substitute was from
Londonderry
and had migrated to Canada
to get away the guns

and the rocks

and the bombs

and for the days
that she taught
she told us
in lisps
and lilts
and harsherer things still
of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

and the IRA

we noticed
as she sat
or turned
or looked back
that she was tatted
on back and ankles
and hands
two tone rose
on her back
barbed wire
at her anke
and a fish
to her wrist
it was hard to miss
the fact that she had
a claddagh

with the heart
turned inward
to show
she was married
or engaged
or somehow had a beau

there was no singing
at Braeside
but the rhymes
I remember
were from
that substitute
who spoke
not in well matched meters
or quick rising rhymes
but deliberately
and with pursed lips
some said she was hatchet faced
and severe
but her eyes were
green and feeling
and when she frowned
with her brows
it was
to get you
to be better
not to judge
or put you down

she made Celtic
sound plaintive.
and asked
nothing
but that we listen
and perhaps
forgive
her
her parochialness
for she was Catholic
and ours was
a public school
but clearly
at a disadvantage
she carried

her haunting music
from verdant brays

to honky tonk ears
and clumsy feet
and yet
remained composed
and did her best.