56

I find myself
facing the TV where André Rieu plays Dublin,
eyeing the side of your face.
You’re sitting in your chair immersed
I can see you smile as the symphony diminishes and the crowd
begin to applaud

as if you were there.
As if you are a sir in a booth who witnesses such spectacles
often enough to know how one appreciates such beauty.
You are not a sir.
But you are my father.
And just like you sit there in contentment watching and listening
to something that’s beyond the world we know
I sit here in the same way,
looking at you,
the world I always want to know.
The composer.
The most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.

Shaneen is a 23-year old Donegal native & Maynooth University graduate who has been finding solace in poetry since those awkward teenage years. Her work has previously been published in The Rose Magazine.