Pity about you,
how the city lights look different now -
Dublin, the rain falling
like we’d forgotten it could.
I think you said something,
but I wasn’t listening,
I keep thinking
if I could just take it easy,
let the hours unfold
without this tug of knowing,
I’d remember your laughter better,
how it always came just when
I needed it. The room is quiet now,
but the sound of you is there.
I think of the way you would smile
when I asked, “Are we lost?”
The way you’d look around;
the answer just out of reach.
No explanation needed.
Just a glance.
And I’d follow you.
Now, it’s only me,
walking through the silence
of what used to be -
the way the city holds its breath
just beyond the noise
I’m always trying to outrun.
Like how you slip between
the words I can’t quite find
and the space you leave behind.
Prof Paul Perry is director of the UCD Mary Lavin Centre for Creative Writing at University College Dublin.
how the city lights look different now -
Dublin, the rain falling
like we’d forgotten it could.
I think you said something,
but I wasn’t listening,
I keep thinking
if I could just take it easy,
let the hours unfold
without this tug of knowing,
I’d remember your laughter better,
how it always came just when
I needed it. The room is quiet now,
but the sound of you is there.
I think of the way you would smile
when I asked, “Are we lost?”
The way you’d look around;
the answer just out of reach.
No explanation needed.
Just a glance.
And I’d follow you.
Now, it’s only me,
walking through the silence
of what used to be -
the way the city holds its breath
just beyond the noise
I’m always trying to outrun.
Like how you slip between
the words I can’t quite find
and the space you leave behind.
Prof Paul Perry is director of the UCD Mary Lavin Centre for Creative Writing at University College Dublin.
