By Patrick Kavanagh
And when it drizzles, I think of sitting next to Kavanagh’s
bronze double, wiry bones welded to canal-bench.
No flayed cuff-ends or split pockets but vein-
branched trousers, exposed gristle,
his cross-legged presence right in rain.
Eric Morecambe spec frames
dripping. Hugged fierce, accordion hands,
as if the joke of being metal mans
getting to him. When it slings -
Kavanagh’s words - ‘commemorate
me where there is water.’
Dublin’s Grand Canal isn’t niagarous
yet beech branches, lime grasses
best in July downpour.
October afternoons recall
rank willow-herb seeds
puddling his lap’s
bowl, slow certain slap . . .
canal water on concrete, his
bronze shoelace wedges
itself on vision’s edge.
And as it flings down, I see that poured green
replicant, Kavanagh’s statue, poet’s ghost
arching above him like a frayed umbrella.
Page(s) 6
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