Poem of the Week: Waking

Early, lying awake,

worrying at it all.

Words, deeds. Love made
and unmade. To breakfast
or not to breakfast. Take it
at nine or at noon.
The classical animals
of Greece we met on our scooters.
The shepherd Adonis walking
the thymey headland with his flock.
You bidding the morning kalimera
I taught you to Ageleia
balanced sideways on her mule,
and an evening kalispera
to young Thanasis
riding his astride.

I there again, alone. Finding
the only beasts in the place
to be the restaurant cat
and a rooster crowing at the oddest
of hours in an empty cote.
Word going around that the last mule
on the island had died.

Listening to urban foxes
at their eerie crying. Geese flying away
screeching their goodbyes.

Today’s poem is from Reflected Light - Grief Songs, a performance of poems set to music by Donal Lunny, sung by Zoe Conway and spoken by Anne Haverty, currently touring selected venues.