Pub Tour in the Wicklow Mountains

 

in these hills tales of crocodiles

wisp like smoke

from a woman’s mouth

a man on a pub stool

strips off his jersey

for a stranger

 

a bartender pours whiskey

gold as the muse

he has now become

lamb slides down

a sheep-shearers throat

slick as hides from home

 

old men fiddle and

flirt—the dirt of lust

buried beneath ridged nails

red-rimmed eyes

from the daily drink

are held up by a corner

 

poets talk songs and the

absence of pixels

and the Minnesotan

dresses up like a

Scot—all kilt and ghillies

with an accent that

 

changes room to room

followed by eye-rolls

from the Canadians

who know the difference

between artifice

and bona fide

 

like the Australian whose lean physicality

is built from the tear and lift

of hard cement

or the astronomer

who mesmerizes with

science gone rogue

 

each brought together

in a random mix of Sitka

spruce and Parsley fern

traveling the military road

in a collective hunger that

dark hills filled with secrets

 

of rebels and monks

might hold

a bit longer

the scatter of orange

offing

in the East

*

Biography

Carey Taylor is the author of The Lure of Impermanence (Cirque Press 2018).  Her poetry has appeared in regional, national, and international publications and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Born in Bandon, Oregon, she has spent her entire life at the western edges of Oregon and Washington.  Taylor has a Master of Arts degree in School Counseling and when not worrying about earthquakes, enjoys hiking, traveling and a smooth whiskey.  She lives and writes in Portland, Oregon and can be found online at https://careyleetaylor.com