Thurles: Just Yesterday
By Thurles Author & Poet Tom Ryan ©
In the multi-coloured buses waiting there,
Clad in blue and white and wine and grey,
The students in the swimming pool car park,
Leaves and leaves of learning on their backs,
Climb the metal stairs
To freedom and to home.
The glistening, indolent waters of the Suir
With the upward shooting spray of white
By the old and parapeted stony bridge,
Adventure by Butler’s Island to the sea,
Like a boy in a long lost summer hayfield,
Under the summer blue sky,
Voices,
Singing or strident or whispering
Of youth and possibility.
And I hear a woman’s voice, my mother’s,
A bright child happy eternity ago
Oh, hurry now or I’ll be late
By the path by the riverside wall of stone,
Mind your lunch now,
Hurry on, Tom!
To the Presentation and the nuns.
Isn’t life a moment after all
Oh, but sudden as a tear
For the sweet and nigh forgotten joys
Of yestermorn.
Oh, beautiful as a child,
Heart- fluttering, bound for a bus
(Oh,wait for me now,Mary, wait)
For that journey to
The great uncertain romance of the world.
(Ends)
Tom Ryan ,”Iona” Rahealty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Fantastic poem says so much and reminds me of my childhood.
A very nice poem.