Testimony

‘We were killing pigs when the
          Yanks arrived.
A Tuesday morning, sunlight
          and gutter-blood
Outside the slaughter house.
          From the main road
They would have heard the screaming,
Then heard it stop and had a view of us
In our gloves and aprons coming
          down the hill.
Two lines of them, guns on their
          shoulders, marching.
Armoured cars and tanks and open jeeps.
Sunburnt hands and arms.
          Unarmed, in step,
Hosting for Normandy.
                           Not that we knew then
Where they were headed, standing
          there like youngsters
As they tossed us gum and tubes of
          coloured sweets’

© 2002, Seamus Heaney