Sips and swallows, Her father & Drifter
by Damien Enright
[ poetry - november 04 ]
Sips and swallows
look out
the swallows going south
blacken the wires
last posts before the sea
from quiet farms
as sun goes out
as yards grow cold
from barns and rafters
the shadows flicker
on the fields
summer's rearings
darken the meadows
on the wires
the old wait
vets of the mile-high club
sharpening cold wings
to slice
through latitudes
tread the night skies
on the high trek
to south of the sun
or fall
for once and all
through the net of stars
the young flutter and dash
flash in first feather
caught in the throng and twitter
adventure -
always, before,
I went
migrant of fancy
took flight when the sun dimmed
no more:
the time has come when I can't go
with the will or the winter
too old now -
they used to say
but listen:
it's the same everywhere
the daily grub
the airborne Lepidoptera
yes
but -
the weather's better see
the scene new
and that makes all the difference -
don't tell me
caution
caution? - I'd go on the next wind
with the next flight
tail off over the sea
be spec to twitchers
in cold winter ricks
and I
with swallows -
there is no staying
and no second chance
the flock moves on
the winds push
the moon beckons
the young dash out
splitting the sky
I loved the swallows of my youth
and the gulps of middle years
now I sip from a small cup
the time's near up
bare wires divide these days
going nowhere fast
Her father
a lot of pubs won't serve them now
said the old woman of the house
behind the dark bar
in the empty pub
in the still village
so quiet you could hear the dust motes
land in the shafts of sunlight
she said when she was young
a tinker man came to her father's
pub undertakers
and said he needed a coffin for his wife
on use or return
for she wasn't gone yet
he hoped she'd live
mother of his children
but he wanted the coffin to
give her
a dacent burial
her father
gave him the box at a good price
said they're stacked in the yard
pay me and
take one
and the man loaded the coffin
had a drop for the road
and went
three nights later
the tinker came back -
she watched him
over the pools on the bar -
he said
it's great the wife didn't die
I have the coffin unused and good as new
can I reclaim my outlay
yes my father said
after taking a look out the window
to see the coffin
prime boards fresh and clean
on the traveller's cart
and the traveller drank
a small draught of fine spirit
will I drop it off sir
says he
do so said my father
and the traveller deferential did
and left saying
you're a dacent man sir
a week later in the yard
she said she smelled a smell and called her dad
who sent her off to call the priest who said
he'd already given extreme unction
to the woman
four days before
and left the husband with
five children in a bender
on the margin
near Macroom
she'll get a decent burial
my father said
poor woman
and poor man
on the roads again
and the boat to England
mother-lacking
and that was how
my father was and
we were then
with travellers
making shift to honour dead
and living
as we went
Drifter
who are the homeless dead
who drift underwater?
and does it matter?
does it matter?
London
Unknown Female
Dead Body 16
drifting
below Tower Bridge
aged 45 about
pathologist says her teeth were well looked after
until two years ago
then suddenly let go
her head-and-shoulders pic
was widely posted
no one came
or knew her name
stoic in death she looked
a woman thawed from ice
mother of the frozen hunter
the leather man in the bog
black hair blown back
eyes cut against snow and distance
neck strong from the sled
broad forehead for the thong
that pulled it
UF-DB-16
interred at public expense
Manor Park cemetery
Christmas Eve 0900 hrs
crossing the straits
to meet the ancestors
