OF PERCHES AND SOUNDINGS
How are you perched
in your feudal
climbing frame
your cage of rights?
Once observed,
you plunge down
plugging engine rooms
and vaults, tending to fittings
within submerged enclosures.
With your periscope
are you failing to read
about cogs and wheels,
the stepholes of others
treading water, in their bobbing
and weavings of life’s journey?
Perhaps
one too many favours
has been asked of you in
your one thousand
and one spin dries.
Within your tight shell
you are nearly
incomprehensible
impregnable
Only seismic soundings
can reveal hints of
a stoic warrior
paired in deep grief.
Dublin, 2004
