Poems by Pat Boran

Aughagower Fox
 
for Ger Reidy
 
Aughagower; October; morning rain;
three crows fighting for a fox on the road,
the torn flesh, the skull cracked open to reveal
the puzzle of the brain. They strut, they step,
they spread and beat their wings, they caw
and claw and swipe at one another until all three
are up in the air then all are back, their beaks
focused in like daggers on the eyes. I’m parked
twenty metres along, on the opposite side, unable
to leave the stark ceremony, not needing to know
how it will end, which of them wins or loses now,
but hypnotised by rain, by the road, by how it is
a fox can fade away, how even death will come
to an end, the space cleared for new life.



HITCH-HIKER
 
All I did was drive.
No promise of a bargain up ahead,
hard or soft, the coastal skies
full of colour reflected – borrowed? –
 
from the slowly lowered disc of sun
and the dust of a volcanic interruption
that all that week had caused a run
on ferry tickets, commotion
 
in the airports and, for one good friend,
lead to a love affair in France
with a girl, like himself, at a dead end
and thinking, if this is it, let's dance.
 
The radio played. I didn't really care,
but the key was minor, sad, slow,
so that when we stopped and the stranger 
understandably, I suppose, made to go
 
I thought he might be from another time
and visiting ours, the way he took my hand
to signal his appreciation, his smile
a flicker in the air, if that, 
 
scarcely more than glimpse or apparition,
no need for words,
his wave in the rear-view mirror 
a flare, a flurry, a flight of birds. 
 

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Pat Boran was born in Portlaoise, Ireland in 1963 and lives in Dublin where he works as a editor and broadcaster. As well as New and Selected Poems (2005) he has published six individual collections. The most recent is Waveforms: Bull Island Haiku, which includes the author’s photographs. His non-fiction includes the memoir The Invisible Prison (2009) and The Portable Creative Writing Workshop (4th edition, 2013). He is a member of Aosdána, the Irish affiliation of artists and writers. www.patboran.com

Weblinks: 
Poems on Poetry International: http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/15430/30/Pat-Boran
Interview on Writing.ie http://www.writing.ie/interviews/flying-high-kate-dempsey-meets-pat-boran/
On RTÉ Irish Radio, discussing WB Yeats: http://bit.ly/1TuoBYO

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