In a Bray Car Park - @edepaor

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.