Ireland in Summer

Geraniums splash whitewashed cottages

in giddy red under the splay of early morning light,

and a jumble of raspberry brambles

garlands the cobblestone roadside girdle.

 

Bursts of lavender rhododendron

bejewel glades of dappled apple-green,

while meadows patched with brilliant gorse

blanket the languid afternoon.

 

Clover and heather fling pungent scents,

cling wild to the moldering ancient slopes,

and roses tumble down innumerable

walls of crumbling memorial ruin.

 

A fusion of blooms lingers in the gloaming,

the mothering scent calling me home

across the gathering skirted darkness

of twilight shimmering on the Irish Sea.

 

 

first published in Illinois State Poetry Society