Before We Disappear
(To Teasie)
The Japanese film we saw a few weeks ago
Unfolded fitfully, but such a moving premise:
After we die, but before we disappear
We must each declare a moment from our life
To live with eternally.
Mine would be one with Teasie O’Dwyer
That first summer, that winter in Ireland.
Before me now is a picture of you
In a blue coat, wrapped against the cold
December of ’68 here in Ballinard
Cattle grazing the green pasture behind
The lichen-covered stone wall
Under leafless chestnut trees
Your brown hair gathered with a red scarf
Your left glove off surely to hold my hand
As we slowly walked that quiet road
Lost to everything, everyone,
But each other.
That moment will do.
© John Pinschmidt 2012.
“Before We Disappear” appeared in the 3 February 2012 edition of the Clare Champion.
