A Note from Dublin

from this sea and cliffs
the seagulls call, brisk
winds stopping the mouth
and unforgiving rain

the shiny streets foil me
and I sit quiet, the
gift of sound in my
ears, and my kin gone -

the birthday one, today,
I hold close to my heart -
but we are all alien
here walking odd ground

and handling soil we cannot understand,
but in this moment of
renunciation, reconciliation, the recharge
of sheer flesh and blood,

I consider you
in your world and ways
twinned to this town, shiny
paves and water

and wind that stops
the breath, and I am
full as I can be, replete,
brimming, drinking-in 

my personal drought, you
feed me and I can pay you
no greater compliment than that -
the thing that slakes my thirst is sweet

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