Rathmines
Seirce Mhac Conghail
If I were to be anywhere drunk, dazzling the dusk time,
It would be in Rathmines
In that garden maze of red and old,
And the busy shopfronts docile in dark
Where foxes dive and dash with shadow wings
In avenues wide as sky
There the teal dome looms like a ship,
Watchful as the moon.
There I knock on the door of night
It unclasps like a mouth
Under the dim light of kitchen
You look at me
I pet your cat
I taste the copper
Hear a car pass in the street outside
The cathedral roof is humming softly.
The stone in me is crumbled at the edges.
You blaze beneath the clock as your tongue ticks.
If I should place my lips to the cup
Would the heat be swallowed?
The kettle boils,
The steam is a curling caress
The courage it takes
To cross an emptiness.
Seirce Mhac Conghail is a student of English and Irish at Trinity College Dublin. Their work has been previously published by Dodging The Rain, The Player, and Trinity Journal of Literary Translation.