A Winters Tale

Kickham Street, Thurles, Co. Tipperary 28/2/2018

A Winters Tale

© Author & Poet Tom Ryan.

I saw a tree, branches like five gnarled fingers,
Bare, barren against a sky of austere lead,
And I shivered.
Cold, gaunt the time,
The mist’s on the mountains,
Night shadows fall fast on the day,
The wind moans in the haggard crying for summer,
And each human greeting’s
More a wheeze, a cough, a sneeze.
The woodshed’s full
A cat, back to fire
Glares at secret places round the house.
That warm retreat from winter and from woe.
We clap our hands for warmth,
For comfort grimly eye the sky .
And all in vain.
We sip the tea
With hearts in one great hurry for the Spring.

                                                                                             End

[Tom Ryan ,“Iona”, Rahealty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.]