That Dark Day

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Object No. 97 Bloody Sunday handkerchief, 1972

Museum of Free Derry

That shocking year lies in all battered minds,

As Derry’s Bogside tragedy unwraps,

An unplanned attack led by British chaps.

As shots were discharged at innocent kinds,

Bishop Daly led frantic man away,

Bringing to safety a wounded young man,

Waved his crisp white handkerchief like a fan,

Pleading for surrender on that dark day.

He thrust the hankie at the bleeding wound,

Only to realize he was too late.

On that street, he died a heavy lead weight,

An awful death, no one could have assumed.

The hankie went through many peoples hands,

And now here it lies, amidst dusty stands.