Each time I pass the undertaker’s store I swear I see him wink and gently smile. Behind him, through a widely open door, a vast array of coffins to beguile, like invitations issued year on year to parties that are bound to end in tears.

John MacKenna’s most recent collection of poems, ‘Where Sadness Begins’ (Salmon), was published last year. His novel ‘Clare’, on the life of John Clare, is republished this month in the New Island Modern Irish Classics series