Dub(h)lin(n), a Poem, (23)
City of Justice
It’s autumn
on my skin
the chill grasp
of being present
astonishes me
to wakefulness
this short journey
of my days
endures
from street
to street
like a crowd of beggars
in this deserted town
my family forged its exile
friendless
foreigners
from this distance
their voice calls
a voice calls
more like an echo
there is no reason,
neither for our coming
nor our going
from Harcourt Street to
the Rathmines Road
i
have awoken
not once
but many times
to this deserted ship
sinking
at
evening
time
behold
this ship of our sinking
this sinking
godless city,
city without
justice
where no one, not
a single person,
no longer even
haunts
these
ruins.
Dub(h)lin(n), a Poem, (24)
City of Justice (2)
for George Norman
Suddenly! it’s September,
rivers of leaves litter
my scarecrow head,
this homeless restless
abandoned head.
Suddenly it is September,
and the evening closes in
on Montague and Chester Street
and in the alleys and laneways
of Ranelagh
the Angelus cries out
all its dead, throws open
its rented windows
throws its dead at their sinking sound,
this funeral march of a sound,
even though there are students
smoking on the street
and your lost sister sleeps
her drugged sleep, far away
in an attic on Corbyn Street.
Suddenly it is September
in the city,
our sorrowful city
its evening song
sinks its drunken
bloody head,
its sentimental head,
into my arms
and then these
late homecomers
passing
like ships at sea,
their ships passing
in the night.
Suddenly, it’s the end of autumn
and in my restless mind
i see him:
heart finally broken,
body left lying
on
the
floor.
Séamas Carraher was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1956. He lives on the Ballyogan estate, in south County Dublin, at present.
Recent publications include poems in THE SHOp (Ireland), the Rusty Nail, The Camel Saloon, Dead Beats, Red River Review, Full of Crow, Word Riot, The Junk Lot Review, Dead Flowers, Pyrokinection, Dead Snakes, Carcinogenic Poetry, Napalm & Novacain, ditch, Bone Orchard Poetry, Istanbul Literary Review and Pemmican. Previously his work has been published in Left Curve (No. 13, 14 & 20), Compages, Poetry Ireland Review, the Anthology of Irish Poetry and the Irish Socialist (newspaper). http://www.seamascarraher.blogspot.ie/
