Catch Me While You Have the Light
for Paul T Dillon
Pearse Station, Dublin.
A blue net stretched across its ceiling
Keeps objects which my tax euros helped pay for
From falling on my head.
Because of Veronica Lake – ‘The Star Veronica Lake,’
As Weegee entitled his photo of her
Which belongs in the Louvre –
Women who worked in wartime factories
Were forced to wear snoods, so that their hair
Wouldn’t get caught in machinery.
My tax euros helped pay for the
Divine blue snood in Pearse.
I drink my coffee bought at the platform shop,
Await my train to Greystones,
Feel like a king.
A pigeon walks with dignity,
Despite intestinal distress,
On the blue net.
Another king.
Pigeons will one day walk through
All of Pearse and all of the Louvre
And other roofless edifices,
As rhododendrons cover the entirety of the isle of Ireland
And as God knows what covers the entirety of France.
The Angelus rings.
Miss Lake looked beautiful.
Catch me while you have the light.
Catch me while you have the light.
And Howth
A brilliant day. We walked the village and the shore.
Locals, children, dogs.
No Yeatses, no Pollexfens, but one could feel the draw.
You wore a straw hat to protect you from the sun.
Ridiculous if one thinks about it:
A straw hat versus the sun.
The sun won.
Two years later you died.
Why is it that Paris, Dublin, so seldom return?
A glorious Rosenkavalier we heard at the Met returns often.
Colour, mass, light.
And Howth.
Copyright © Richard W. Halperin 2018