SINEAD

from which well she was drawing Song

I dreamed only Irish people know

or those who bear an ageless Sorrow

the unmistakeable voice of Irish lament

the universal and the secretly coded

the cry down centuries and before Time itself

the wail of angels over the drowned

the heroes forfeited called forth in

a brave unerring music

others attribute to something else

but it is there, the long grief,

the grief before and before and before

the grief sustained but barely, conveyed

the ghosts among the barley of the weeping stars

felt to the core of the drumbeat

of the remembering heart

and personal sorrow

breaking the mold and

the fissure in the universal

pouring forth

leaving us transfixed

thus has it ever been

until Christ Kingdom come

until the slowing

of the drums of war

and past the sailing forth of

her Soul now.

mary angela douglas 27 july 2023