Derek Mahon 1941-2020
You’ll be peering by way of the binoculars
out of your ultimate look-out submit, I assume,
overlaying all of the exits and entrances
of that the majority illustrious harbour mouth,
for that’s how it’s this vibrant autumn
day in one other coastal city you as soon as
might name your individual and on watch once more
for what was taking place past Howth Head.
Now your individual lifeless have newly assembled
to welcome their prodigal son again dwelling,
wherever that is perhaps – below Cave Hill –
stepping out in full Hitchcockian mode,
pointing to this and that, a backyard shed,
the vanished nook store the place all of the friends
gathered seventy and extra years in the past
because the murky air settled on windowsill
and afternoons turned darkish earlier than
you knew it and the chilly sky
broke to a grey-blue tinged with fireplace.
Oh sure, how straightforward it’s to recollect
what was left behind however not so good
with regards to why. Why? Why? Why?
For there was no reply, and by no means is, so
let’s make-believe a situation to your protected return:
a seal maybe, rolling on the shallow rocks,
in sea-surge – perhaps not; what about
that city fox disappearing again
into its personal territory, unseen,
or extra like an area chook, hovering excessive
sufficient to have a very good look
at what lies under us right here amongst
our strange lives of nooks and crannies.
- Gerald Dawe’s most up-to-date assortment, The Final Peacock, was printed final 12 months. His memoir, Trying By means of You: Northern Chronicles has simply been printed.
