September 15th, 2025
by Patrick O'Donoghue
Drunk on perfumes and palaces
Lovers pinch a whole cosmos between fire orb and horizon
Fingers and thumbs predict
As down it comes to dusk
In 15 minutes
No, 10 minutes
No matter
Nada Nuevo Bajo El Sol was our only vesper.
Fixed at the mirador
You think of Queen Isabella and that ardent last voyage
Many a river overflowed
Lorca unborn whispered from inside the frasco
Chasing children cried Tiempo muerto! and a whole plaza froze
Halting this playtime of blood and bone
Incense and mud
But now I think of cherry blossoms in Japan
Commence my inquisition
As dumb and blind as that ass
Kicking around under the dust and clay spell of las brujas
In Sierra Nevada foothills
Monks weep from the mosaics
But you did not know there were crypts underfoot
And I traced clashing love messages and lipstick kisses
Planted like Spanish Bombs in another time's walls
Geometric grief upset the Mizan
Or was it the amateur astronomer armadas
Or the vloggers
Sticking selfie sticks in the palace of Carlos?
You said Flamenco was a protest dance
We gasped as she flailed in flesh-fleeing fever
But things and days just yield to ends
And no flushed dissent
No earth-birthed wooden heels
Can tramp them away
In moonlit parks palms were read
And lavender offerings made
To strange fortunes foretold
Below monasteries glistering as twinkling polarities
Like abstinent stars
Lodged in snow capped wilderness
In the rain we plucked ripe oranges
Sending secret prayers to Saint Damien
Craving the touch of all that is untouchable.
Notes:
Nada Nuevo Bajo El Sol – a song by Chilean rock band Los Bunkers,
which translates into English as, There Is Nothing New Under The Sun.
mirador – A lookout point.
frasco – A glass jar.
Tiempo muerto – Time out.
Las brujas – The witches.
Mizan – Arabic word for cosmic balance.
About the Poet
Patrick O'Donoghue resides in Dublin, Leinster, Ireland.
Read the poet's biography and Wax Poetry and Art publications
on Patrick O'Donoghue's Artist Page.
This poem is also featured in Comet #6,
published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
Previously published in Dublin Poetry Magazine:
The Hanging Gardens of Us
by Lorraine Ryan
Dublin Poetry Magazine is part of the Wax Poetry and Art Network.
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