As winter yields and April fades to May the lengthening days awaken cigarette haze and Tullamore Dew cloaked memories of that summer we shared on Árainn Mhór:
You lying in the sun reading the thickest books we found yellowing in a Dungloe shop window; illustrated Life of Brian scripts, The Last Temptation of Christ, you liked them both – and you, an atheist.
Naked splashing in a spring-water rock pool warmed in the sun flushed by the tide.
As the Earth turned slowly and seeming timeless campfire evenings stretched tilting – tilting into darkness I drank too much ‘Tullamore’ and you sipped rum.
You lying on talc-soft passionate sand beneath a parasol, a wisp of gauze draped – for decency’s sake – casually across your thighs, captivated me.
You laid aside ‘The Last Temptation’ as I walked toward you and I swear to God, that in your face I saw the face of God.
And your welcoming smile was His smile and your wide-open arms were His arms and your acceptance of me was His acceptance.
I hope I’m not disturbing you, I had to speak to you again.
Straight from the ferry from Burtonport I hired a bike and rode past Lough Shore to the old lighthouse where you spent long hours painting your watercolours and wanted to settle but the cancer feasting on you devoured you
I buried your ashes in the amphora you brought from Syria - planted an asphodel and inscribed a memorial on a flat chalk stone,
“Here lies my brief miracle.”
Weathered by winters the inscription is faded.
I sit drinking rum – it tastes of your hugs embraces my soul you are near you are so very near.
I will go to the shore to find another white soft-stone marker, and on it I’ll write,
“Tread gently... Saoirse dreams here.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Posted: Aug 2018
About this poem:
If I'm performing to a sober and sensible and 'poetic' audience I often give them 'Saorsie' - I've written a number of Irish poems (set in Ireland that is) the landscape and seascape lend atmosphere and that sense of yearningthat ought to lie at the heart of much poetry.
Comments (5)
Kathy
Rob
With pangs of pain
A beautifully written poem