No need for mock reminders.
The roofless cottage is testament enough.
Its idle chimney mourns
the turf-fed fire
that starved to death
when ashen faces
round the hearth
laid down the sleán and left,
taking the ache of going
and a chance,
leaving the gape of a doorway
to welcome wind and emerald moss.
John Walter Taylor
© All rights reserved
9 December 2025
