Images Pleasing and Displeasing

Galway was not a place that I have regularly visited. I probably have been there less than ten times in total.

It is only in the last two visits in the last month that I have really taken time to take in the centre of the city.

Last Saturday, there was a definite buzz, despite the weather conditions.

I very much appreciated the public poetry.

In my smoking days, a window cill was a great perch to relax, enjoy the moment and watch the world go by – if only I had been able to restrict my smoking to the cigarettes that I actually enjoyed!!!

“MEN WITH TIRED HAIR

 



On a bank holiday Monday in Galway,

you can see old men

sitting on window sills in Prospect Hill.

 

Time is not a factor here,

only images pleasing and displeasing

to the men with tired hair.

 

Despite this easiness with life,

there is a waiting, a look out

in anticipation of something.

 

The looking up and down continues:

the awaited stimulus always comes.

 

Days it’s a young woman.

Streets it’s a fire.

Years it’s news of a tragedy in far off Dublin.”

 



RITA ANN HIGGINS