It’s All A Game Of ‘Pitch & Toss’ – Thurles Poet Tom Ryan Reflects.

Pitch And Toss.
Courtesy of Thurles Author & Poet Tom Ryan ©

Fired from the ramp of a cardboard match box
Two copper coins spun and twirled.
“Head or harp ?”
Like gold in the morning sun of a Sunday
Before Last Mass.
In the school in the Derheen Lane,
Or above on the Road of the Saints.
Young Sunday – suited speculators,
Their oily hair combed slickly back,
Like the guys in the Fifties James Dean movie,
Gazed at the spins of fortune,
On which their pence and tanners lay.
And maybe cinema matinee money too.
The stern faced teller,
The accounting man of the school,
Gathered the profits of the Sabbath early.
And who would argue the toss.
END

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