LOVE IS AN ANCIENT DISEASE

THE PACT

She says:
The neighbor’s wife might die 
And the weeds in the garden 
Are much too high
The expression in her eyes
Is not entirely without love
Our pact 
It is hideous
Our pact 
It is beautiful
We go for our stroll
Above the cliffs
The rain sets in 
She takes my hand
The rain subsides
It’s getting dark
It’s holy
It’s devastating
It’s all there is
The cottage roof needs fixing
Seamus brought over
Turnips
Lamb 
And fish
It is quiet
All you can hear
Are the waves
3 miles to the west
It is all there is
The phone rings
My father’s dying
A life lived in fragments
A death like all others
Her mother goes on
About some rare interstellar constellation
The parish priest
Takes a drag from his cigarette
And says:
It beats damnation
The salmon return
For the first time in years
She says she had herself a premonition
Of what she can’tremember
I linger for a spell
At an overgrown headstone
A little girl
Of merely 3 
Died here in 1919
The ruins of Dunlewy 
Cast a shadow across our hearts
It is past midnight
I’m standing outside the Glen
Waiting on you
In the days of old 
A man had but one suit
And one wife
The end brings no closure
It merely brings the end