Smithereens Press Chapbooks The Sea Path by Ciarán O'Rourke | Page 41

or the watch-strap
tightened
on a boyish wrist,
and the man
not checking it
as the camera strikes.
And yet, to look again,
there is space, too, behind
your fierce unreadiness
for softness
to unfold itself; enough
even for the poet
to stir in this image
of soldier, son, and lover still,
and show
which verve of air
and coolness out of earth
were yours that day,
and which our own
in the imprecise
perfections of the past
we wreak. Wanting you
so remembered, I feel
that I could wait

35