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SERVANTS OF THE STATE

i.m. Father Jerzy Popieluszko

Rather than let the Nazarene
Enter Jerusalem with flowers
Pietruszka, Piotrowski, Chmielewski
And Pekala would have slain him
On the way, would have buried the body
Under palm leaves
Or dumped it in the Jordan.

Rather than give him benefit of trial
They’d have beaten and garrotted him
At the wedding feast in Cana.
Murder is too good
For the likes of him, they said.
They wouldn’t have wasted three nails
Or a cross.

(The Honest Ulsterman, 82, ed. Frank Ormsby, Winter 1986, pp.55-6)