After Death of Vivian Connell, & the Wake,  Bray, Ireland

The Official Eulogy

 

Lir, Manannán, father, son, blew mist in from the sea,

relished the grey skies hovering over the dying man,

 

till our father’s heart attack pierced as gorse thorns,

sent him over the sand, rocks, ready to ride a horse

 

on the waves near Bray.  But the gods said not yet,

no bodies, we’ll only take ashes.  Body, you must trek

 

first to the northern great furnace of the dead, to burn

away that carking flesh. Only then will we steer you

 

over and under waves to our Otherworld of islands

on the western sea. So, all be comforted – we know

 

he’s gone to the realm of the dead, to the ancient crags.

where the dead live or die.  And we’re sure he’s hoping

 

his soul will not die there.  And so not live again.

*

Biography

Lavinia Kumar’s books are The Celtic Fisherman’s Wife: A Druid Life (2017), & The Skin and Under (Word Tech, 2015).  Chapbooks are Let There be Color (Lives You Touch Publications, 2016) and Rivers of Saris (Main Street Rag, 2013). Her poetry has appeared in several US and UK publications such as Atlanta Review, Colere, Dark Matter, Edison Literary Review, Exit 13, Flaneur, Kelsey Review, Lablit, New Verse News, Orbis, Pedestal, Pemmican, Poetry 24, Symmetry Pebbles, Lives You Touch, & US1 Worksheets. Her website is laviniakumar.org.