the mist
came over
Killakee's
dull mound
and took us
by surprise
as we clung
on the gorse
fringed ditch
watching
lights come on
round Dublin Bay
from the Bailey
to Poolbeg to
the twin beams
of Dunleary's stoney arms
the mist took us
so much by surprise
we did not feel
the chill hand
on our backs or
the creeping damp
on our skins
stripped bare
as we lay
dreaming of
the Eve of St John
when bonfires set
the West alight
from
head to head
and bog to
curling wind swept bay
the cotton grassed
haven of our youth
but lost now we
are on familiar
paths of present
and past futuring
the fires of life

beneath the ditch
a solitary magpie
watches us
sly
slow
sinister

06/16/2007