Remark
We had been a long time busy
a little sad maybe,
preoccupied,
then I said something dry
perhaps you’d call it
and you laughed
in a way
that made me
stop and stare.
Sudden, rich and startling
it turned my head
and such a flood of happiness was there
that here was something I could do.
Something I’d forgotten I could do.
Here, take it from me,
breathe on it
till it shines
and on a darker day
we might see the world more kindly
through it it might light the way.
by Maura Dooley
from Life Under Water; Bloodax, Tarset, 2008