Boys and Men
On the first day of a year long ago
We walked the path to the glazing wood
Peter, Michael, Seamus and me
We cut hazel wands to swing
Severing the tops from offending fern and brier
Some spark of our ancestry
Made us hunter gatherers
As the dogs rose and caught startled rabbits
Proudly home, ‘Mam, here is the dinner’
The rest sold to old Mrs Power
Six pence each we were rich
Every three rabbits bought five cigarettes
And a flagon of cheap cider
In a fern hid den we sat on damp ground
Sucking sweet apple from brown bottles
Cupping acrid smoking sticks in children’s hands
For a while we were men, our fathers
That was a day far off in my youth
Before life filled my pockets with stones
I was young then
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