Abu Dhabi Poems

The Galway Hooker

Laiden with peat
she skirts the coast,
a vagrant 
plunged in deep,
old masters
caressing her sails,
dragging her ashore.

An erring sister
moored for hours,
bags of turf
loaded onto carts,
a small package
pressed into his hand,
a young man
turns his back on the pier.

Her deep red sails
shrouded his thoughts,
crouched underneath
he remembered every curve
keeling away from him,
her lips receding
from his flesh.

She carried away
their tears,
and wrapped them
in the folds
of her canvas,
their muted silence
drowned by greying waves.

Bedraggled and frayed,
this half boat abandoned
like unopened letters returned,
a fallen vessel
seeps from the memories
of others,
a forgotten promise
left to linger.