The day we protested against the war:
what could we need a new one for?
Grey clouds scudded overhead;
nurses sighed by hospital beds.
The restaurants heaved; children stole playtime;
streetlights blazed through a darkening daytime.
Walls showed our way instead of the sun;
little and peace and brittle and gun.

Our sore feet walked to gathering ground
by the river: a stage with its waves of sound.
The speeches came thick, the voices sooty
each chanting notions of civic duty.
Heads were shaken, hands were clasped,
for nobody knew how long it would last.
Then we each walked slow ways back from town
as the day rolled over and night fell down.