Elizabeth Bartlett
A Mad Dublin Man
I didn’t think I’d meet him there,
swearing like a trooper, flicking his ash
over the pristine carpet, filling the room
with his loud voice, flexing his muscles
behind the drawn lace curtains,
as if he had every right to be there.
Itinerant Irish navvy, he might be
a terrorist or just one of the mad
Dublin men drinking in bars,
wearing their working clothes,
predatory, coarse and dirty,
secretly tending a cache of Semtex,
somewhere in some remote suburb.
I am afraid of him, of what he will
do, scared as I am of my own shadow
these days. I block my ears against
the noise of his persuasive voice,
hollering in my ears; the smell of him
is all pervading. I shall shower him
off me, when I get home, place food
on my pine table, feed the cats,
say my prayers. Hail Mary Mother of God.
I finger my rosary like a convent girl,
although I left so long ago,
and cross myself over and over
to keep away the dark.
Page(s) 7
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