We are standing

under the rose window

upstairs, in the empty building

that was Waterstones,

when I ask - this one time

I meet him - if he can remember

the hair of the barber

in Thurles on Liberty Square;

and, not needing to think,

he says he can see

Ted Lean’s white mane

clearly to this day

because Ted Lean had

the same white mane

that Ted’s father had had.

Tom French's latest collection is Midnightstown (Gallery)