Bono, Paul
name those streets
it’s time
it’s time.
Mr. Joyce, James
yes,
that sea
still tightens the scrotum.
Mr. Beckett, Sam
we’re waiting
we’re waiting
we’re waiting
Mr. O’Brien, Flann,
Myles of the Little Horses
this is not about a bicycle.
My dad once told me
you were a regular
on the last bus out of the city,
heading home to Booterstown
langered, stotious,
three sheets to the wind
whether this was an observation
or a judgement or an exaggeration
I could never quite figure
but if you should meet my dad
in that section of heaven
reserved for former residents of South Dublin
please say hi from me
and I hope it’s always late June up there
and the evening is stretching its legs
and the light is like filtered longing.
Taking part in Open Link over at dverse
Stopdraggingthepanda 
This poem is fantastic Jim, and waxes beautiful at the end. Filtered longing? Wish I’d said that….
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Thanks Kim!
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☘️👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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Makes me swoon and sigh at the same time. Good day to you and Cheers!
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Thanks Jade!
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Hope you had a grand St. Patrick’s celebration.
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Thanks Eilene, we did our best!!
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Beautiful!
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Thanks Lucy!
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I love this poem, Jim! It reminds me of everything I miss about Ireland, and it’s thirty-eight years since I left. I couldn’t suppress a chuckle at the lines about Flann O’Brien and the bicycle and:
‘you were a regular
on the last bus out of the city,
heading home to Booterstown
langered, stotious,
three sheets to the wind’
I haven’t heard those expression is years!
Here’s one back at you for St Patrick’s Day, which I wrote in 2018:
On a soft morning…
rain strokes the earth, greening
leaves and grass, the porter
scent of turf smoke fills the hills
and, in the river, water chuckles
at a joke, a limerick or the jaunty song
a musician whistles on the long
road home from a late night session
and whispers in the rover’s ear:
go n-éirí an bóthar leat.
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Thanks Kim! Funny how those late night sessions always end in daylight!
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Cheers to the Irish …. I celebrated two days in a row. Exhausted. A great poem, Jim!
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Thanks Helen!
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Indeed “an observation or a judgement or an exaggeration”
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I really liked your ending,
“please say hi from me
and I hope it’s always late June up there
and the evening is stretching its legs
and the light is like filtered longing.”
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This is incredibly beautiful and heartfelt! I am especially moved by; ” the light is like filtered longing.”💝💝
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Thanks Sanaa, much appreciated!
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The phrase I take away from this lovely poem is “filtered longing”. Well penned.
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Thank you Beverly, much appreciated!
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This is so fitting for S:t Patrick’s day… great writing and memory of all great things that have came from the green Island.
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Thank you Bjorn!
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