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Disavowal

by Ambrose Bierce

From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry

Two bodies are lying in Phoenix Park, Grim and bloody and stiff and stark, And a Land League man with averted eye Crosses himself as he hurries by. And he says to his conscience under his breath: “I have had no hand in this deed of death.”
A Fenian, making a circuit wide And passing them by on the other side, Shudders and crosses himself and cries: “Who says that I did it, he lies, he lies!”
Gingerly stepping across the gore, Pat Satan comes after the two before, Makes, in a solemnly comical way, The sign of the cross and is heard to say: “O dear, what a terrible sight to see, For babes like them and a saint like me!”
1882 .

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