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An Honest Transaction (Free verse) by Christof
As the hat came round
I looked at my coin, at the Queen's crown,
And felt myself made traitor for a quid.
The beet-faced collector said it was for the kids.
To protest that I was English and, I guess,
Probably a Unionist if the question was pressed
Held less currency in a dark pub in Kilburn
Than an Irish punt at the Bank of England
In the muddled mid-90s, a year or so after
The release of In the Name of the Father.
An usher in Dublin had sneered with laughter
When I took my accent to see it; wouldn't I rather
See Robert de Niro in A Bronx Tale?
Of course, my courage failed.
And so, trying to think of Irish children
And not the killers of Irish children
I flipped in my pound.
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