FILÍOCHT: Patrick Galvin

Swans on the Grand Canal

My Father Spoke with Swans

Leaning on the parapet
Of the South Gate Bridge
My father spoke with swans
Remembering his days
With the Royal Munster Fusiliers.

India was dawn
The women cool
The sun cradled in his arms
Sometimes,
When the clouds were wine
He washed his face in the Ganges.

The swans rose from the Lee
And held their wings.

2

Leaning on the mysteries
Of her twilight room
My mother spoke with God
Remembering Pearce
And the breath of Connolly.

Ireland was new
The men tall
The land mirrored their brightness.

Sometimes,
When eagles called
She walked the roads to Bethlehem.

God opened his eyes
A loss for miracles.

From these two I was born

The Ganges swaying with the Lee

And gunfire rising to a fall.

My mother wore green till she died

My father died with swans.

Only the rivers remain

Slow bleeding.

The Ganges and the Lee

Playlist:

James Connolly
Patrick Galvin