I’d seen them before, the tall pointed hoods

with slits for the eyes, the phalanxes marching –

but that was Spain, all colour and ceremony,

flower-decked Madonnas shuffled along

on huge wooden platforms, the funereal drumbeat,

Christ burdened by the weight of his cross.

This was elsewhere. White-robed, white-hooded,

they triumphed in the street at being given back

the hate they’d had to mask. Behind them I saw

the fiery cross,  the noose tied to a tree, the dragging

feet, the terrified faces. I saw the righteousness

that knew nothing beyond white and black.