When The Old Man Got In
The yawning mouth
almost torn out
somnolent, listless
grimacing and worn out.
Broken cracked-lines and veins
an old pullover
with diamond-print patterning
and a dusty tweed cap.
Staring into space ahead
putting on oversized headphones
listening to only one side, nervously.
Talked about stew in the freezer
defrosted for Sunday dinner
batch-cooked from the week before
for the following two weeks
and that he might go as far as the front-gate again
and back to the front-door
tomorrow
if he was feeling up to it.
Yawning
with his eyes closed
and opening them intermittently
on the way
to another appointment.
The third one
in a row
this month
he said.
A Vacancy For A Lighthouse-Keeper
After years and years of patiently waiting
it finally came up
at long last
the most perfect position
advertised on a local church-noticeboard.
The marriage of idealism
solitude, peace, serenity and solace
along with quiet peaceful night-work.
Lights, ships and beams
projected across the seas
steering maritime-vessels to safety from potential harm.
Such fresh sea-air
from elevated points of view
with the rotating-beam penetrating the coastal-fog
right through the prism of my memories of Andrew the great.
Taking the rough with the smooth
imagining crackling old radio-communications
from ‘ship to shore’
like those old black radios with the extra-long aerials
that could pick-up airplane pilot’s conversations
as they passed over our houses ‘when we were young’.
The most perfect perspective imaginable
up so high in the tower
from which to see the real world so clear and aloft.
It was such a pity that this post was advertised
long before
I ever came along.
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About the Author
Gavin Bourke grew up in the suburb of Tallaght in West Dublin. Married to Annemarie living in County Meath, he holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English, Human Development and Irish from Dublin City University, a Master of Arts Degree in Modern Drama Studies from University College Dublin and a Higher Diploma in Information Studies from University College Dublin. His work broadly covers the natural and socially constructed worlds, phenomenology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, economics, medicine, politics, social justice, history, existentialism, absurdism, technology, inclusivity, inequality, human life, ethics, commerce and science, in English and to a lesser extent in the Irish Language. Gavin has won international competitions for both book-length manuscripts and individual poems and is published widely internationally.
