Letting Go
I love the abandon
of abandoned things
the harmonium
surrendering
in a churchyard in
Aherlow,
the hearse resigned to
nettles
behind the pub in Carna,
the tin dancehall
possessed
by convolulus in
Kerry,
the living room that
hosts
a tree in south
Kilkenny.
I sense a rapture
in deserted things
washed-out circus
posters
derelict on gables,
lush forgotten sidings
of country railway
stations,
bat droppings
profligate
on pew and font and
lectern,
the wedding dress a
dog
has nosed from a
dustbin.
I love the openness
of things no longer
viable,
I sense their shameless
slow unbuttoning:
the implicit nakedness
there for the taking,
the surrender to the
dance
of breaking and
creating.
by Michael Cody
from Oven Lane;
The Gallery Press, Oldcastle, 1987