The bachelor and the spinster <br />stood together, hand in hand, <br />before the Priest who’d wed them <br />in the chapel Kilmainham. <br /> <br />With two prison guards as witnesses <br />there in Kilmainham gaol, <br />Joseph Plunkett and Grace Clifford <br />wed at midnight goes the tale. <br /> <br />At dawn a firing squad awaited <br />her brave bold Fenian man. <br />She’d remember their one, stolen, kiss <br />and the ring placed on her hand. <br /> <br />Her Joseph chose a dark way home <br />when he tweaked the lion’s tail. <br />In martyrdom he found a way <br />to rouse the sons of Gael. <br /> <br />Some marriages last many years, <br />some, a shorter time- <br />but a love that lasts a lifetime <br />is truly hard to find. <br /> <br />Joseph, knowing what he was to lose <br />His love and fate embraced. <br />He died when bullets pierced his heart <br />while in a state of grace.<br /><br />John F. McCullagh<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/state-of-grace-4/
