10+Mary+Street



10 Mary Street

For nineteen years We departed Each morning, shut the house Like a well-oiled lock, Hid the key Under a rusty bucket: To school and work - Over that still too-narrow bridge, Around the factory That was always burning down.

Back at 5pm From the polite hum-drum Of washing clothes And laying sewerage pipes, My parents watered Plants - grew potatoes And rows of sweet corn: Tended roses and camellias Like adopted children. Home from school earlier I'd ravage the backyard garden Like a hungry bird - Until bursting at the seams Of my little blue St Patrick's College cap, I'd swear to stay off Strawberries and peas forever.

The house stands In its china-blue coat - With paint guaranteed For another ten years. Lawns grow across Dug-up beds of Spinach, carrots and tomato. (The whole block Has been gazetted for industry.)

For nineteen years We lived together - Kept pre-war Europe alive With photographs and letters, Heated discussions And embracing gestures: Visitors that ate //Kielbasa,// salt herrings And rye bread, drank Raw vodka or cherry brandy And smoked like A dozen Puffing Billies,

Naturalized more Than a decade ago We became citizens of the soil That was feeding us - Ineritors of a key That'll open no house When this one is pulled down.