The Boom and After the Boom

The Shannon when it washes

the shoreline in the wake

of a cruiser susurruses

exactly like the Polish

language you hear in lidl

on Friday evenings, 7 pm

payday. That’s what

Gerry says.

                           •

The river surface offers

space to the song:

hammer taps of Latvians

and Poles nailing planks

of a deck.        The place

between water and sky

holding sound. It is under-

loved and an amphitheater.

                           •

Latvians and Lithuanians

are nailing planks

of grooved decking.

It will be a nice feature

of that riverside property.

        Their tap-tapping

underscores the distance

between this side and that.

                           •

Winter gales have made swift work

of the billboard proclaiming

42 luxury bungalows only two

remaining.        Crumpled up

on the roadside now

two-by-four legs akimbo—

a circus-horse curtsy

or steeplechase mishap.