just so you know where i'm coming from

by Paul Harrison

when i was a kid growing up
in a Free Presbyterian hell-hole
where only hell fire and hatred were free
and everyone was an evangelical
and Sunday school was compulsory
and the girls could n't wear jeans or make up
and the swimming pool was shut on the Sabbath
and signs hanging from trees enquired
where you might be spending eternity
and the Bible was literal and Catholics knew
their place or if they did n't
it was soon beaten or firebombed into them
where culture revolved around a bi-sexual dwarf from Holland
and fucking the Pope, the Anti-Christ, that hor of Babylon
where religious tracts titillated one way tickets to hell
and the drink was the Devil's brew
where preachers thundered from pulpits
street corners and local government chambers
and where it was perfectly normal
to stone 5 and 6 year old children walking to school
because they were fucking fenians
or stomp to death a teenage boy outside the chippy
because he supported Celtic
and where the Mayor said he was sorry
but did n't attend the funeral
because the kid was a Catholic and going to hell
and where your best friend's brother got bound with electric cable
and battered half to death as the brave freedom fighters
discussed dismembering his body as he lay there bleeding out
until he escaped and left the country
forever
and where the Ulster Taliban dressed in conservative black and drove the latest models
and where i doubt it's getting better...