nothing today
as I will walk
past the place
where I held your hand
on the curbside
towards
the little window
where your bright face
bid me goodbye
every day
one magpie
pecking the grass
foaming sea-surf
of the memorial
magnolia
kids in the daffodils
the birds singing
again
and the eternal scent
for me
of your life
like the two blossoms
on the dining table
unfaded
as Chinese feeling
in the cut-crystal
bowl
of invisible waters
Anniversary of Miriam's death-day
4 April 2010 Belfast

Chris Agee’s Next to Nothing (Salt, 2009), was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. He is editor of Irish Pages and Keith Wright literary fellow at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow. This poem is from his new collection, Blue Sandbar Moon