Snowbound

Carriages lit and still between the drifts …
With each flake it took on a new form,
the city they seemed exiled from —
almost a sad, illicit love or muse

with face averted. When he nodded off,
he dreamt he joined a true Duessa held
inside a garrison, while snow’s
witchery of whiteness bound the fields,

enchanting all beholders … He was woken
as the train snaked over clanking points,
the city now behind them, the spell broken,
glamour and auras melting in the night.

 

Michael O’Neill’s third collection of poetry ‘Gangs of Shadow’ will be published by Arc in 2014.