Month’s Mind

by Thomas Lynch
i.m. Macdara Woods

I rode with the corpse of Macdara Woods
in Fanagan's hearse. It was all I could
to say the life of a poet matters,
though come to this end: freshly hallowed tatters –

a coffined hollow of our former selves,
our voices quiet, old books on the shelves,
hats, coats on a hall tree, friends in the yard,
condoling, consoling new broken hearts.

• Thomas Lynch is a poet, essayist and funeral director. He has published several volumes of poetry, including The Sin-Eater: A Breviary, as well as volumes of essays and a work of fiction.

Rory 

by Pádraig J Daly

Like a cascade of primroses
Through a tarmac path,
He breaks his way into her heart.

She should know better,
Who built her life from scratch:
What she has, she earned hard.

She knows his promises won't last;
But the sly cajolery
Subverts her heart.

• Padraig J Daly's collections of poetry include The Last Dreamers: New and Selected Poems; Clinging to the Myth; Afterlife and God in Winter – all published by Dedalus Press