The Greatest Love-affair
Smiling, a shoulder trimmed by geansai dubh,
Frayed jeans hems,
ferry deck soaked
from toes to shins.
You first pervaded essence.
Between harbour cliffs,
Hair clung to your cheek with Atlantic spray.
Lying beside you,
Your eyes
Glowing cheeks and
smiling lips
Spoke of admiration.
In the rearview mirror
You kissed my eyes,
blessed a sacred theft
and returned it without a word.
Wild night dances
romanced in thinning light
through a pub window,
Around candles,
through glass froth, and wick smoulder
Urged onto bar—counters
Well thumbed coins and a dangerous joke.
Seeing you sit tight,
My bloodied cask,
Imbibed,
Ventured stubbornly outdoors,
Into exposure
Fell between cobbles,
Emerged from under bridges
To go to some unexpected beautiful place,
To where you might return,
By chance.
You toiled in good twilight
behind the marinated
drunk woodwork, and
As if from across the sea,
Began again.
I treasure that you farewell
As in this parting
Is the lived life of our love—affair.
Your goodbye is the kiss of promise.
For what reason lips may need to meet
Is found only in this beautiful illusion.
I have seen you silent
Sweet, sweet woman,
and lost myself in you.
I am dreams of you
at morning’s window
coffee drinking.
You are the distant star of my desire.
I am a tree under a clear night sky.
These things that are ours,
In the quiet of our nights apart.
(2007)
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