The Organic Poet
In a Bray Car Park - @edepaor
Updated: Apr 12, 2020
The people here routinely gift each other
the leftover of their parking tickets.
I learn this in the two hours I spend
locked out by too-keen electronics,
awaiting delivery of a spare car key.
The sky is a cauldron of grey
stretching to mauve at the western end.
I was never here enough before to notice
how the mountains cup the town in a neat well,
the sea a petrol blanket draping the midground,
deceptively still.
Three people ask if I need help.
Two offer coffee.
The very first I approach hands me her phone,
unquestioningly.
The jobs I thought I had today,
reel off like kite strings snagged on gulls.
My new job is to watch, be watched,
glad of the warming stretch
in my olive green cardigan cuffs.
Name: Eilín de Paor
Place of Residence: Dublin, Ireland
Your Favourite Quote: “What if our bodies were transparent, like a washing-machine window? How wondrous to watch ourselves. Joggers would jog even harder, blood pumping away. Lovers would love more. God damn! Look at that semen go! Diets would improve – kiwi fruit and strawberries, borscht with sour cream.” Lucia Berlin
Your one wish for the world: That we embrace the concept of universal design: creating spaces and society in ways that include rather than exclude.