….poem from Cashel: Tales of the emigres
My Love – why have you travelled on so far ahead of me?
You’ve crossed the narrow straits of time to vast eternity
Now I am left here all alone while you are there – elsewhere.
Where is there? What is there? When I get there will you be there?
It’s uncertain: you’ve gone inexplicably far from me
Much farther than the shore is from the boundless endless sea;
Much farther than the sun is from some distant galaxy
No longer conjugatable beyond the verb ‘to be’.
The photographs you’ve left are barely able to infer
More of the ‘esprit de corps’ of the person you once were.
I wish my silvered speech might wake your sweetly sleeping face
But silence’s gold catafalque drapes you with its embrace.
My love, why have you travelled on this far ahead of me?
Impatiently I wait to share your call to liberty.