Last Wish by Elisabeth Rowe
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Last Wish Copyright © Elisabeth Rowe 2010
Before I go down to the ferryman
All set for the final journey
Iʼll find me a Cork or Kerry man
From Droom or Ballyvourney
Heʼll be lean as an Irish wolfhound
With eyes of emerald green
Rugged as Boggaragh Mountains
Salty as Skibbereen
Smooth as a pint of Guinness
Heʼll flatter in fluent blarney
Heʼll kiss me with his leprechaun lips
From Dingle to Killarney
To the saucy skip of his fiddle
Iʼll be dancing till Iʼm giddy
Heʼll set my feet a-jigging from
Kishneam to Ringaskiddy
And when I need to rest my legs
Heʼll pour the best poteen
Distilled by a Catholic brother
By the road to Carrigaline
Heʼll whisper tales in the old tongue
To make me tired and teary
Feeding the fire with turves of peat
From Sneem and Ballymakeery
I long to be wild and feckless once
Before the final tally
Lord, send me a Cork or Kerry man
From Crookstown or Stradbally
And over the bright green hills weʼll dance
And over the golden sands
With the soft mist in our eyes, Lord,
And a shamrock in our hands
More than two stars surely
Surely this lovely ditty with its lilting rhythm and its sense of fun deserves more than two stars! If I was voting instead of commenting I'd give it at least 4... probably more...
What I love about this website is the fact that it gives us random poems and readings on the right hand side of the screen so that I can be lured back to read poems like this, that I enjoyed long ago, and experience their joie (?) de vivre, or profundity, all over again! RL