Old Haunts

When we hooked up in Dublin last July, Joe,
You mentioned old haunts, and snow began falling.
Maybe you saw me seeing it. Snow fell
Christmas Week 1992 on Dublin and environs
During my wife’s and my first trip to Ireland.
It fell on Switzer’s and The Naughty Pirates.
It fell on the Huguenot graveyard. It fell on Howth
Where we sought a holy well we never found.
It fell on Glendalough and on a little pub
In Laragh where we warmed ourselves by a fire.
Irish snow. It falls now on my hotel room, a desk
And a wall mirror before me. Mirrors would be
Better with snow clinging to them. One does not
Want to see too clearly, one can’t bear it. Snow
Would help with that, Irish snow helps with that.

Richard W Halperin’s most recent Salmon poetry collection is Catch Me While You Have the Light (2018); People in a Diary is listed for 2022. His most recent Lapwing collections are Richard Dalloway in Wisconsin; Summer Night, 1948; and The Girl in the Red Cape (all 2021).