In the street at morning,
in the people I pass by
idly, without
watching, even,
I see myself transformed.
One man, avuncular
and slow, will scan
each paving stone
before he steps. I know
his gait, and strange defeat.
A child, eight or nine,
leans on the glass
of a shut shoe-shop,
chewing the rim
of a biodegradable
cup: her world.
Her hands
are stained by the rain,
and grey.
Nearby,
the oldest
woman in the city
is counting breaths.
She smiles to me
with the look of the lost.
I would
give anything
to stay the light
in her tired eyes.
A former winner of the Cúirt New Irish Writing Award and the Fish Poetry Prize, Ciarán O'Rourke is a poet from Dublin. His second collection, Phantom Gang, was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2023. His third collection, Prophetstown, is published by The Irish Pages Press.
More work by Ciarán O'Rourke
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