First holiday in Ireland

I don’t remember if I am honest
much about my first holiday there
apart form all of the photographs.

I don’t recall which station it was
all the way down from
Dublin to Belfast
when the train broke down
and we were forced to stand
in a tiny box with
a half working coal fire
for four hours
before they finally

Eventually

Eventually

got it working.

I can’t remember the coldness
in your eyes at Belfast
as we boarded
the Bus to Enniskillen
and the way you curled up
next to me on the bus
while listening to
the Fun Loving Criminals
and I was dying to reach
over your shoulder
as you slept
to turn it down.

I don’t recall the heavy snow
that started not long
after we arrived
And don’t recall being snowed in
for two days with your parents
who spent the full of the time
trying to persuade me to eat
some of their fresh lamb
they had just bought
and then looked at me blankly
when I told them I was
a vegetarian. 

Memories are strange things
which taste bitter
If you return to them years later
where driving past
Connolly Station
for example
I can still remember you
kissing me frantically
and vanishing straight after to

Argentina

Brazil

Scotland

Argentina again

and last 
I heard Madrid.

Memories are such
fragmented things
on the road from Dublin
to Cork City
before going under
endless tunnels
where every time
I see girls of your build
and hair colour
I am half tempted to
look back in more depth.

Half tempted to look back
as I see the roads sink into one
and listen to raindrops
drop against the window
softly enough so it feels like
time scratching on my neck.

Half tempted to see if
she has your slightly 
crooked nose
and pointy eyes
which made you look like a pixie
and ignore the rustling of leaves
on the tracks
which are determinted
to crawl under out tires.

Almost tempted to
make my mate
pull over frantically
or drive back
the other way
into the grey sky
and the muted sky.

But sometimes it’s just
best to drive on. 

(NB. 1st in a series of poems wrote in and around Ireland

during on tour in July 2010)