An Irish Enclave

South Side of Chicago,
long before Barack Obama

On bungalow porches
and out in backyards,
on hot summer evenings
they lower themselves
into green canvas chairs,
smoke and sip beer,
laugh and relive
Easter, 1916
and plot what they’ll do
when the niggers pour in
and eddy all over
the dregs of their city.

by Donal Mahoney