Poetry: The Change We Sought & The Starry Cow
Tadgh Quill-Manley presents two poems "The Change We Sought", about revolutionary change and disillusionment, and "The Starry Cow", about farmers facing exploitation.
By Tadgh Quill-Manley
The Change We Sought
Every revolution ever
Devised by the most clever
From the rot, they sever
And souls naive
Of anew, believe
Assuming it not too far gone
To rectify all that’s wrong
They must be ready to stand up, then
For combat in the villain’s den
And although it is not as mighty
The sword decides who holds the pen
Yet history provides a warning
And the idealist may end up mourning
For those without a Machiavellian trait
Are warriors destined for a tragic fate
As it seems that thoroughly good men
Will never be esteemed as great
Those who gain control may revise the theme
Drifting ever further from the dream
Men of puerile mind
To knives are blind
And that vision once so fabled
Destroyed by some, we many enabled
On reflection, it makes the morose sigh
When they hear that brave man’s cry
“We serve neither King nor Kaiser”
Acting as a battle galvaniser
Due to the fact that ‘ad finem’
There’s superficial change achieved since then
And all of us are none the wiser
The Starry Cow
One More Cow, One More Sow
Another acre cultivated
By a shining plough
The farmer’s son takes off his hat
Wiping the sweat from his brow
Their productive loans are being called in
Lives changed at the financier’s whim
To survive, they’ll work for life and limb
Yet their malnourished bones are wearing thin
The processor purchases milk below cost
And no buyers for our fields of maize
It looks like all hope is now lost
It seems, rarely these days
That honest work ever pays
One More Cow, One More Sow
We are coming closer, acre by acre
Until we use our Starry Plough
Let’s grow a harvest from the soil
And struggle living from our toil
About the Author
Tadgh Quill-Manley is guest contributor to Dynamic Zero.
Quill-Manley is studying to be a barrister at King's Inns, Ireland. He is the youngest-ever member elected to the Council of the Irish Council of Social Housing, and has also served on the boards of (but not limited to) the National Adult Literacy Agency and the National Advocacy Service (Patient Advocacy Service and Advocacy Service for People with Disabilities). He is hon. treasurer of Aontas Scríbhneoirí Éireann (Irish Writers' Association, Ireland's only nominating body for the Nobel Prize for Literature) and at the age of 18 was shortlisted for Best Screenplay at the Beverly Hills International Film Festival and won Best Screenplay at the Philadelphia Youth Film Festival. He has had poetry and short stories published in Irish and European publications.