Amsterdam

Amsterdam you humid bastard

all my clothes are soaked

but I bought more in the second hand market

on Haarlemmer Road.

I fell in love with Vincent Van Gogh

he was just as fucked up as me

and I feel an affinity with anyone on the periphery.

I faced my childhood on the side of the road by the river down in Amsterdam.

Me and my mother, we took a plane

we went back again.

I met my mother, we got on the yellow tram line.

We were talking about Summer

a little girl who was a friend of mine.

We walked the old streets I played on

I was just a child then

we ended up at the old apartment

it used to be a heroin den.

Oh what’s worse is the silence that happened then

*

North Donegal

There is a place, north Donegal

some of my memories are there

the blonde and the brunette

the girl with the short hair.

It’s the place where I made

some of my earliest mistakes

the best thing that I ever did

was getting out of that place.

I remember the winter

the springtime and the autumn

but most of all those summer nights

we spent in her garden

and I’m going back there

no matter what you say

I’ve been invited

to her wedding day.

Stones’ throw from you.

It’s the lying, it’s the wasting

it’s the cheating on yourself

I’ll wait for love.

It’s the drugs, it’s the late nights

it’s the bottle I love the most

I’ll wait for love.

The autumn, the fading light

the darkening day, the compensating night.

I walked home, left it unsaid

with pounding heart I died a distant death.

The days draw down, dwindle, scatter

it all ends and none of it matters.

I linger on, become undone

I learn my fate is to always be in love.

Slip and slow down, square one again

I’ve made mistakes that I deeply regret

I’ve made mistakes again, again, again.

*

Biography

Born in Dublin in 1984, David Boland spent his childhood variously in Amsterdam, Dublin, Limerick, Shannon and Donegal. He has lived in Galway for the last decade where he is Artistic Director of An Áit Eile and curates the popular Citóg night in the Róisín Dubh. He also makes music under the name New Pope.