'Darcy and O'Mara' is a novel by Arthur Cronin.
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Thursday, June 11, 2009

 

The Price of Success

I treasure all that life entails.
When my most recent mission fails
I'll say 'hooray' and celebrate.
I love what high-achievers hate.

Failure's nicer than success.
Being good at playing chess
May well inspire respect and awe
And compensate for some great flaw.

But this success means spending hours
Strengthening your mental powers,
Gazing at a board of squares
And facing bishops' vacant stares

While I'd be at the estuary
Where two fake bishops blessed my tea.
These bishops wore more jewellery
Than Mr. T. In fooling me

They told me they had just said mass
To a most angelic class
Of pupils from a local school
Where light and mindless kindness rule.

The children's smiles were disconcerting.
The bishops heavy hearts were hurting.
I had a thermos flask of tea.
The bishops' eyes lit up with glee

When I poured tea for them in mugs.
They told me that their favourite drugs
Were tea and cake. I quelled their hell
When I gave them some cake as well.

They blessed my soul before they left
On a raft acquired by theft.
The sun above makes me feel blessed.
It tells me I'm a welcome guest.

On riverbeds of mud I stand.
I search for buried treasure and
Retrieve detritus when the tide
Goes out and leaves no place to hide

For old umbrellas, broken planks,
Shredded documents from banks,
Tangled nets and ropes in knots,
Bins and cans and pans and pots.

The office-bound can have success
And days indoors and waves of stress.
Film stars can't steal a raft
Without being seen and photographed.

I'll stay out in the sun till nine
Without being seen, and then I'll dine
On fish I found. My makeshift shack
Has candlelight to fight the black.

With peanuts I can pay my rent.
To celebrate a day well spent
I'll open my homemade champagne,
Made from aftershave and rain.






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A Walk in the Rain

 | poetry from Ireland



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