Above my home in Dublin stands Killakea Mountain. On its upper slopes is the Hell-Fire Club which has a notorious and sinister past. But all is one when the mist comes.


hell fire

the mist
came over
Killakee's
dull mound
and took us
by surprise
as we clung
on the gorse
fringed ditch
watching
lights come on
round Dublin Bay
from the Bailey
to Poolbeg to
the twin beams
of Dunleary's stoney arms
the mist took us
so much by surprise
we did not feel
the chill hand
on our backs or
the creeping damp
on our skins
stripped bare
as we lay
dreaming of
the Eve of St John
when bonfires set
the West alight
from
head to head
and bog to
curling wind swept bay
the cotton grassed
haven of our youth
but lost now we
are on familiar
paths of present
and past futuring
the fires of life

beneath the ditch
a solitary magpie
watches us
sly
slow
sinister



Poetry by Peter Humphreys
Read 741 times
Written on 2007-06-17 at 01:17

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kath
your words make their way, strong and hauiting ..giving a direction into past and present ... the way life builds, never moving forward without the past comming along..

you used the words creating a haunting scenary felt as a chill as I read ..and I will watch out for tha sly, slow, sinsiter magpie now

very good read

best wishes
katherine
2007-06-17


Rob Graber
This is quite haunting! I could use more background though, being quite poor at history I'm sorry to say...
2007-06-17