18: ROOTS

Nigel McLoughlin: Bridge of Tears

The old language, cut into the stone block
like an epitaph, marks a bridge in the middle
of nowhere. The stream it fords is far too small
to carry a name and the stonework slung over it
looks out of place. Beneath it is a scar
excised by the trickling waters, a deep gully
in the bog, a valley's parting.

The rock commemorates the thousands who left
taking the long cut out for Glasgow, England,
the States; where both sides turned their backs
and parted; became dead to oneanother.
The valley recalls it in the spring melt-water's rush,
the sluice of juice where the sléan struck; the blood,
the scar and the healing

standing like a plea in the last letter home:
come meet me here at Drochead na nDeor
and walk with me again.

Nigel McLoughlin was born in Enniskillen in 1968. He has been twice short-listed for a Hennessy Award, placed in The Kavanagh Prize and The New Writer Poetry Prize. He holds an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and his debut collection, At The Waters' Clearing, was published in 2001 by Flambard and Black Mountain Presses and received widespread critical acclaim, a second collection, Songs For No Voices will appear from Lagan Press in July this year. He also co-edited an anthology of new Irish poets entitled Breaking The Skin which was published in 2002 by Black Mountain Press.