Anarchy
(For the lost child within)
i am not a writer
any longer.
what have I lost, between
these nineteen forty-eight pages
and the whisper of the observant,
clinical streetlamps
we waited under –
for an instant
only
immersed in knowledge
without the aid of chopin,
or the selfish scholarliness
of the summer rains
that reared us.
do we cease to seek the sunlight
after we’ve felt the angst
and desolation
of winter tears?
Too Thin
(For a warrior history has forgotten)
remember those days of fire-lit dancing,
a cuisla,
when you’d stomp in youthful impetuousness
to make me your proper warrior –
but i’d flutter too much,
like the heather and the fox,
and the small thorn-tree we’d
take for an omen,
just as your father
(the gypsy)
used to instruct us to do.
remember the naked, warlike ebullience you felt
when he taught you to leap
with muscular fierce boyishness,
after you’d creep to me
apologetically,
for comfort;
you
with your gentle irreverence for my brown
horsetail hair,
and the pure scratchiness of my coat that always carried
the close, musky scent
of ashes and hay.
remember how my eyes glinted
with pain and
gladness
to see you throw your slender spear,
mo ghra,
knowing with a foolish certainty
that i would hold you,
still,
today
as i’d hoped and prayed,
mercilessly,
to hold your child.
Siúil, Siúil
(For one taken too soon)
i tripped today,
somewhere
between the road
and paddy's grave,
alone
in the thickets and
dusky heather,
and in the
silken
morning fog.
the blackbird
listened
as i sat and cried.
she
was kindly, wrinkled -
whispering
naughty child, alanna,
as she wiped the
berry stains
from
my fingers; the
bloodstains
from
my knees.
Luna
(For the eternal wanderer)
i. Nunitus
He stroked the concavities
Of the moon
Like no one ever had before,
Fascinating her with
Mercury
And clockwork...
So like herself, she
Whispered.
ii. Amavi
She called him strong,
I think.
Childlike.
He slept
On the curve of her hips:
Too light,
Too restless.
iii. Barbara
Waking in solitude,
He found the moon's chalk
Gift
Crushed in his left pocket.
