Atlantis

Atlantis

At the cliffs of Classiebawn

I have seen you in dreams

Where the arid autumn leaves

leave their trees & drift

beneath the Celtic sun of a

June-dayed October,

Falling on the beach at Mullaghmore,

When last we walked

hand in hand in life.

The ocean was unchanged;

Still feeding on the coarse-rock

coughed up by disquieted time

Drinking from the fountain

of its own immeasurable womb

Breathing as the moon's disciple.

Ours was the island

latent in the lakes

of Plato's paradise

Buried beneath the

hurried highways of

the tiger's tomb.

You left before fate

had a chance to intervene

for the greyer-green

depths of the queen's majesty

In silence, I licked wounds

that wouldn't heal-

Craved the unconscious

Woke with memory's loss

etched in the empty echoes

of a hollow routine

Cried wolf as the

lions closed in for the kill.

I walked fields to feel

the unplundered pasture

of the past

Feigned love for the closed-eyed

surrogacy of your touch

Waited for a day that never came.

I must leave you in those by-gone days

In the sunset's silhouette

of the ocean;

Elegant,

Infinite,

Unchanged.