Wednesday 9 November 2022

HOWTH



Standing at the edge of Howth Pier

where the ocean swallows the eye

looking at someone's 

... Life is...

admiring their restraint

and thinking about the Anguilla anguilla

that migrates in mass shoals

about this time of the year

to spawn, lay eggs and die

in the Saragossa Sea


But I'm telling the story backwards

though it is a cyclical one

for  after the Caribbean spawn

and with the help of the Gulf Stream

the baby eels shapeshift 

from leaf-form to snake

from translucent glass to yellow

to European estuaries

and fresh water lakes


before silvering their way back 

in the fullness of time

to Saragossa 

and full circle

and closure 

to the question

of what

...Life is...


Copyright 2022 Cathy Leonard All rights reserved

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