Curvature of Cork,
Breaking free of static lines,
Blending ancient bridges,
With sharp-edged blocks,
Scraggly trees,
And pavement-gazing pedestrians.
We rush headlong,
Into the event horizon,
When distant melts,
Raise the waters,
Wash out the swamp,
For a final time.
Pleas will be hurled,
Prayers incanted,
As the great and good,
Are carried downstream,
Like drowned timber,
Ripped from the Gearagh.
Concrete and brick crumble,
High-tide lines settle,
To wet the tail of the salmon,
Leaping o’er the silent Shandon,
Returned at last to the sea.
by Ruairí de Barra
First published in Live Encounters Special 12th Anniversary Edition, December 2021. You can read the five poems in this special volume on the Live Encounters website, or download a free PDF copy by clicking here.
Live Encounters is a wonderful publication, and all of its issues, as well as special editions, may be found on its website at https://liveencounters.net/.
I would like to thank Mark Ulyseas for seeing fit to include my work once again in the same pages as some truly talented people.
Photograph by Joe Noonan. This photograph is what inspired the poem, so thank you very much, Joe. Please find and follow Joe on Twitter/X (@NoonanJoe).
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