A shaft of light between clouds
and a glimpse of distant blue
remembered hills, last year’s hopes
cast now in a cave of shadows.
I don’t have the stomach to cross
such distance these days, ride for love
into the oncoming tide, surf
the rollers, live with the youth.
For old times sake I stop here,
Drunk on promises from the night
before, the pain breaks upon the shore,
Shatters seashells, cracks open the land.
But the daylight briefly breaks so I run,
out of the storybooks and into the sun.
Matthew Geden is a poet, teacher and translator living in Kinsale. His most recent collection is The Cloud Architect (Doire Press, 2022).