The Old Head
We reached Louisburg after midnight
and woke next morning in a universe
of wonders: the post-box in the drive
was a post-box but emerald green!
And as for the fishermen’s nets
crispy and stinking in the harbour,
the lobster pots like instruments
of torture for babies, the trawlers
unpronounceable with apostrophes!
I set about collecting each specimen
until, on the evening of that same day,
my decently hushed mother and father,
who also looked brand new to me –
and, to judge by their tact in walking
a yard apart, to each other as well –
decided a stroll in the twilight
would whet their appetite for dinner.
At the precise moment I imagined
they might link arms or otherwise
cross whatever it was between them,
they veered further apart, my mother
back to the hotel with her cardigan –
tied around her waist – unusual, that –
dropping into the dust, which spoiled
the effect, while my father’s finger
beckoned me to the fuchsia hedge.
Look at those deep reds! You don’t
ever see that at home now, do you?
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