Split?

by Dominic Sweeney

the readied question

leaves

before we can grasp

uncover an expanse.

A country demands
measures.

Persistent hands
divide land

times
hearts

mark –

fear
it
already

splits sounds

So split?

the ground
an etch divides
stretches you bound
times abide.

Split

the tongue
past quips incise
pleads prised
in lines reside.

Split

the thread
two clans amend
wrought ‘pon spools
to civil rule.

And split

we ‘fro
seeping woes
drying eyes

Irelands

rise.

Reproduced with kind permission of the author. This poem featured on the Poetry Jukebox installation in Galway from July to October 2023.

Themes