Poem: There We Were, by Enda Wyley

We could have stayed forever there but then the bells rang . . . and we were saved

For Lainey

There we were,
where winter

was a splinter
of sun

in the roof
of our thirty years

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where days
were a puzzle

like the scratching
of city rats

in the old
house walls.

We could have stayed
forever there

but then
the bells rang

our floors shook
and we were saved –

peered out to see
spring strut up

from the river
in a cape of light,

our future
a new cathedral

for us to enter
and to claim.

From Enda Wyley's Selected Poems ( Dedalus Press )

Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle is Books Editor of The Irish Times