Derek Mahon

''They have been waiting for us in a foetor
Of vegetable sweat since civil war days,
Since the gravel-crunching, interminable departure
Of the expropriated mycologist.''

''And in a disused shed in Co. Wexford,
Deep in the grounds of a burnt-out hotel,
Among the bathtubs and the washbasins
A thousand mushrooms crowd to a keyhole.''

''Grown beyond nature now, soft food for worms,
They lift frail heads in gravity and good faith.''

''Snow is falling on Nagoya
And farther south
On the tiles of Kyoto.''