This morning spent with Tommy and Mary Christie
is how I would like Eternity to be.
Two sods in the grate will be keeping the fire lit
as fresh tea draws on its stand at the grate
and the talk turns from cricket pads and bats
to the banshee and vixen being one and the same.
If Jim Curley drops in, he'll describe molten lead
being poured into an egg shell half bedded in sand
to make the perfect weight for catching eels,
which leads to talk of eel skins as strops for razors,
then a game of remembering all the brand names
of the old blades, until it dawns on someone
that we might wander out to stretch our legs
and check on the day, and be amazed at the raspberry canes.

From Midnightstown (Gallery Books)