Eclipsed
Inspired by Patricia Burke Brogan’s powerful play. In memory of every Brigit, Cathy, Mandy, Nellie Nora…
Penitent women Repenting for sins They didn’t commit. The babies that bled from their wombs were the wounds on their hearts Startled or screaming Or silent.. Their violent births Worth more to the nuns Than the ‘whores’ Who lay sobbing Snivelling like wretched caged rats The wrath of their people upon them For what? What was their crime? Why was the stain placed on their name For shame! The blame on the men too Who told them they loved them Lay with them Held them Gave them the eye Drowned them in lies and then left them to die To suffer and cry by themselves And innocent victims made pregnant by force Who’s fates were the same For shame! Their Mammies and Daddies Didn’t they know the girls didn’t sow their babies alone Sighing and singing their rosaries For penance produced by their ovaries Proof they were fallen Were less than the rest Who were married Or men Or blessed with their deaths Priests and nuns proclaimed them repugnant Penalised them for just being pregnant Girls out of wedlock professed as delinquent ‘Fallen women’ Whatever that meant Washing away their sins every day Sewing and mending and more Slated and stripped of their clothes to wear grey Names shed and swept out the door ‘Home babies’ Starving or shipped off and sold Taken away from their homes Ripped from the breasts of the mothers that bore them No one to comfort their moans Belligerent captives of innocent lives Twisted and evil and sick Malignant entrapment Secrets and lies Sex, simply life’s cruel trick Unforgivable Inexcusable Each individual Utterly criminal Penitent women Repenting for sins They didn’t commit.
Thanks @Sarah Posthuma for restacking 😊🙏