Title: Sport 31: Spring 2003

Publication details: Fergus Barrowman, November 2003

Part of: Sport

Conditions of use

Share:

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Sport 31: Spring 2003

ANDREW JOHNSTON

ANDREW JOHNSTON

page 100

Sol

Solitude, solace, consolation—
sun in its onlyness

shines on us here,
cups the heart in a deep blue bowl.

Courtyard radio. Swallows in pairs.
You'll have to let everything go

but it stays, and stays,
and is connected:

straight white line—no wind—a plane
flying, in the mind, towards the sun.

page 101

Aitche

for Denis O'Connor
Thank you for aitche
—its itch, its ache—
thank you for shifting the posts

and lifting the ships
—Minerva, Clifton, Lancashire Witch—
their wakes, their lists of ghosts:

say Mayo, say Galway
or Dublin, say,
travelling from or travelling to,

the aitchless generations’
aching voices coming through,
their silent aspirations coming true.

page 102

Z'habitants

The rivers teemed with
enormous freshwater shrimps

but that was Martinique
and I was thinking of Louisiana—

backroads strewn with sugar cane,
your swampboat cousin at Atchafalaya—

bless you. We'd both caught colds
from running in the rain across New Orleans.

Z'habitants, écrevisses, ouassous, crawfish—
whatever you call them, they're so good

we could push the boat out, every night
and every morning

sleep late, talk, turn the boat around,
head for another shore.