Point of Punctuation
References are made throughout the poems to punctuation marks: exclamation marks, hyphens, colons, question marks, etc. The punctuation is used metaphorically describe the action: bombs, automatic weapon fire, police interrogation, etc. The connection here is symbolizes the myriad things about violence and the way it is communicated, the way things fail to be communication, and the futility of language to describe its horror.
Where the Streets Have These Names
The title situates the placement of the narrative as Belfast, but references by the speaker narrows the focus down even more. Apparently, there is very small section of the city where were given names having to do with the Crimean War. The allusion to this conflict has the effect serves to make the violence taking place in Northern Ireland as part of “the Troubles” more than just a simple localized civil war defined by small-scale acts of terror. It is a major engagement between two nations.
You Realize This Means War
Immediately building on top of this connection to the Crimean War is a catalog of military equipment: an armored vehicle and the protective netting which covers it, high-quality plastic face shields, and walkie-talkies. These are instruments of war, not police protection. The precise formal naming further serves the purpose of making them symbols of warfare. The speaker is pushing the point that what is usually handled as a law enforcement task in other major cities of the world is in Belfast handled as a military issue.
Confetti
The symbolism begins in the title. “Belfast Confetti” was a slang term for the results of homemade bombs made for the purpose of inciting terror in the standoff between Irish republicans and those loyal to British rule. Confetti is almost never associated with violence or warfare and so the coining of this inappropriate term for the aftermath of a bomb symbolizes the way that endless episodes of terrorism become egregiously normalized.
Asterisks on a Map
The explosion of the bomb is described symbolically in two ways with two different elements. The first is physical symbolism as an asterisk—∗—looks sort of like an explosion in the milliseconds following detonation of a bomb as seen from above. The symbolism is then extended as the asterisk is placed on a map and it is very likely that there is more one such asterisk on a map of Belfast if each one pinpoints the location of such an explosion. The asterisk on the map symbolizes how today’s horrific breaking news becomes just another statistic tomorrow.
