Grey Skies Over Aughrim
Grey skies over Aughrim:
Fields peaceful and green,
That knew terror and bloodshed
Where battle had been.
But now only cows graze there,
Armies fight no more,
Time heals all scars in landscapes
As often since and before.
From far fields in Flanders
From Ballinamuck to Beiruit
Time brings peace to spite Princes,
Ages one eternal truth.
The men who kill men,
Lose most and win least,
To the battlefield March knowing,
Unlike to the slaughterhouse walks the dumb beast.
Other places, other battles like Aughrim,
Under other grey skies,
Shells throw up earth as they cut down men,
Whose prayers get no replies.