The saved were all ingratitude,
The lost would not lie down:
Reborn, their sacred rage renewed,
They razed the fallen town
And in the graveyard made their stand
Just east of heaven's gate.
We are the same. It is all one
Whom we exterminate.
Sean O'Brien's most recent collection of verse is Cousin Coat: selected poems 1976-2001 (Picador, £7.99)
