I walked the path to the end

 

When I got there

 

came back through the grass

 

Leaving a trail, for you to follow

 

So that you would not suffer the twists and turns

 

For the grass is greener than the reality

 

O Dublin, you fair city

Cobbled streets, bounce beneath our feet

Carrying old souls and young dreamers

Arthur Guinness, your pearly gates

How you taught us, what’s worth a wait

You are your people, not your place

Beckett, Behan, Wilde and Yeats

You’ve worn many a different face

 

Stephens Green to College Green

All the change you must have seen

Your flower sellers see it all

On Grafton, where they’ve pitched their stall

Conversation carried on the breeze

From Poolbeg towers to the Liberties

There’s not a spot where strangers seat

For we’re all friends, who’ve yet to meet

 

Your tribes spread both North and South

Whisper your name from their mouth

Singing songs, chanting rhymes

Fond new memories, rare auld times

Where would we even start

You’ve carved your name in all our hearts

From Ballymore to Dublin Bay

The Liffey carries dreams away

 

Dublin, all of this to say, I may be gone tomorrow, but I’m here today

Created in the flow of lava

I am volcanic, suddenly changed

hardened, un-igneous, different

Metamorphosised – Metamorphic

The flowers still bloom

Where they were planted – years before

Her green thumbprint all over

Garden of Eden in urban wasteland

 

Her calloused hands are tired

Unable for the digging of the earth

The tackling of bramble and brush

She is confined to house and home

 

Yet – when the sun comes

Clouds lift, unveiling her children

Watcher from the window

Mother of all beauty in nature

 

A rose tree ascends to heaven

Grown of her blood, her sweat

Flowering year after year

Something living – after life

My heart is my limit

I can’t control who’s in it

 

My mind is my limit

When Terrible thoughts slip in it

 

My hands are my limit

They wander when I’m not looking

 

My legs are my limit

It’s like they’re never working

 

My back is my limit

It breaks at thought of moving

 

My pride is my limit

When I am facing defeat

 

My soul is my limit

It seems I will never be free

 

O, theres love and pain

triumph and defeat

everything’s your limit

 

when your mad at the world

and everyone in it

He is Son, Brother, Husband.

He is Selfish, Lazy, Hopeless.

He is Unequal, Unworthy.

He is Complicit in the silence.

He is working to be better.

He is hopeful for the future.

 

She is Mother, Sister, Wife

She is Outspoken, Fearless

She is Supportive, Loving, Caring.

She is more than she seems.

She is Light in Darkness.

She is Pillar of Perfection.

 

They are Interwined, Connected.

They are Unequal parts of the sum.

They are Nothing and everything.

They are Sharing broken paths.

They are Breaking broken moulds.

They are in this together.

You run along rivers

I flow in unison with.

Seeing you there,

Searching for bridges.

 

Stopped on overrun riverbank.

Deep water pulls me in.

Enticing me, streaming whispers

 

Torn apart by expanse,

Chasing notions of love.

Stepping stones in my mind,

Used to bring us close.

 

We dance through cold nights

until bracing morning comes

waking us from delusion

River slows to meandering pace

Revealing bashed, unbroken bridge

 

I dare not cross this distance

for love lives on in memory.

Across unmoving stones on wild rivers

They wait to be tread upon

Revealing lost wonders.

We were young lovers

Whispering sweet nothings

In a rush — worried about the end

Never living in the moment

 

I don’t know when we drifted

Suddenly untethered — floating

Struggling to get back — to you – to us

The world watched on as we failed

 

I think of you — more than myself

In the whistle of the wind

The stains on the wood counter

Deteriorated — like you said

 

Broken down over time

We treated it right

Sanded — Varnished — Polished

Still — it could not survive

 

If it had been marble

in its pristine beauty

We’d have been deceived

Until the day it shattered

From the cracks – we could never fix

There was a moment — Before I fell

Still standing — Now in blackout

Plummeting towards the floor

My mind wanders off

Fearing the impact

Transported to childhood memories

Leaning forward chairs

On a precipice — Close to tragedy

There was safety then,

Hands to hold me back from the edge

I am older now — in freefall.

Aiming for some soft ground

Hoping to stick the landing

I want to stand in busy streets.

Where unfamiliar faces meet.

Feel the rush, as they pass.

In their hurry, Moving fast

 

You would think it commonplace,

To see each entire face.

Nowadays that’s quite a task

As every face wears a mask

 

Take me back before it started,

When life was not for broken hearted.

Theres places to see, people to be

Every soul aching — Can I be free?

 

We are at the beginnings and end.

Of the same circle, my friend.

The earth will fall at your feet

The we can fill — every.empty.street.