Poem by Eithne - Green Curtain Theatre

Then
Hard, board cover green
and strong golden harp like a
St Patrick’s Day badge.

Photo taken in a studio
posed, not smiling
looking up.

Then it took us to exchanges
in Europe, getting through
faster than girls with English ones.

Later, pulled because it
was green to fill PTA slips and
stand off to one side.

A friend who’d been in the merchant
Navy said some officials pulled out
the green and let them through first.

Always Irish, never any doubt
though my siblings tried
others on for size.

Now
Wine coloured European, envy
of friends who seek Irish roots and
grandparents to join us;

still the words in Irish and the harp,
Irish passport keeps me grounded,
reminds me who I am.