The War of Despair

by Sarah Joyce

Despair tastes like a bitter sting 

resting on the tongue.

Despair looks like a rooted tree 

forever stuck in place.

Despair feels like a weight on your shoulder

drowning me, dragging me down.

Despair sounds like a hopeless ringing

renting out your ear.

Despair is most at home

when the bombs and war are near.

Written by Sarah Joyce, as part of Poetry as Commemoration workshops led by Terry McDonagh, in Castlerea Community School, Roscommon, in  November 2022. Transition Year students were invited to write a poem in response to Terry McDonagh’s poem ‘My Freedom One Hundred Years Later’, written in commemoration of the War of Independence.