Irish Sea

I

Give Antoinette a kiss and then we’ll go swimming she says to the child
South Dublin accents
Everyone here is shiny, gorgeous
Rich
Smell of sea and sunscreen
Blue and white stripes on tanned skin
We don’t know how we got here

Fake tan fading in the Pale
And fuchsias dying out here by Sellafield Sea
Smell of salt and piss
And sticky flower smell
Desperate tang of dying things
That once were pretty, once were young
Sky preparing for the winter to come
Keep wait for the train and for those we love
Keep wait for the weather to change

II

And now we’ve come near the end
And it’s the last time I’ll see you
From Seapoint
At least in this life

It’s a goodbye
Amongst many
Happy Christmas
Come back and give me one last hug
And all the goodbyes we’ve been avoiding
Because they’re never pretty and bittersweet
Only awkward, and cheapen what has been

Why is that?
And why do we only start enjoying things as they come to an end?
Sit still now and think on it
Pink sunrise coming up from pink stained sea
South Dublin voices that I’ve grown used to
Comforted by the way they twist “so”
I’ll walk home by the houses I want to live in
And dream of futures coming to be
And pasts that never were
As gorgeous as we remember

Jessica Coleman is studying law at the University of Limerick. She is a Mayo native.