Come Back by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

Although there is no paper yet, no ink
There is already the hand
That moves, needing to write
Words never shouted from balconies of rock
Into the concave hills
To one far away, whose hair
On a collarbone resembles
That break in the dunes, that tufted ridge
He must have passed, faring away.
If the railway does not exist yet, there is, even
Now, a nostril to recognize
The smells of fatigue and arrival,
An ear cocked for the slow beginning,
Deliberated, of movement, wheels rolling.
If the telephone has not been invented
By anyone, still the woman in the scratchy shirt,
Strapped to her bed, on a dark evening,
With rain beginning outside, is sending
Impulses that sound and stop and ask
Again and again for help, from the one
Who is far away, slowly
Beginning her day’s work,
Or, perhaps, from one already in his grave.

From: https://griffinpoetryprize.com/poet/eilean-ni-chuilleanain/

Date: 2009

By: Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (1942- )

Tags: poetry, 2009, come back, eiléan ní chuilleanáin, although there is no paper yet no ink