Seán O Muiríosa Poems

The old house stood as sturdy as ever
even as the mangled jade ivy clung and grasped
as it had for decades, but she would never be killed.
It’s not in her make-up.
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Staring through the dark of night
I can just about make out the ceiling, cracks and all.
It’s a battered fading plain of white like a rolled up piece of paper
Flattened back out again. It must have witnessed
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Painful star of poetry;
Misery disguised,
Misery unleashed;
Ending in an oven.
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Twinkling lanterns shone high
In the Johnstown night sky
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I visited your grey face today.
Your not well, old friend, not well.
They say it’s spreading swiftly
Through your every curve and bend,
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Golden waves rushed on in
upon a rusty Irish sky
as mother sang out across the land,
fading leaves strained on branches.
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The mind is the scariest thing I know.
It is not like any darkness.
It is a transparent, life colour
Covering everything I am,
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18th September 1994

It’s eleven years now
Since I last saw your face.
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I’m drowning. In a sea of wires.
They are everywhere. Inescapable.

Frail solitary man there in your mottled,
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The two of us alone on that stony Cheathrú Rua beach
On a July evening that almost seemed like my reason for being.
It was our last day together and the sun was burning strong.
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