Power's Store, Branch
the backroom of the store
is not much to talk about
a small room
beer boxes and bottles
buckets of pickled meat
flies and rodents and other foreign things
an old storm door
no radio
no telephone
no amenities
no nothing
the old ones gather there
to talk
about when the fishin' was good
(sure them young fellas don't know how to fish
too fond of the drink)
what the crowd down the road is up to
(ya never can be up to that crowd)
where buddy's son is working now
(making good money too they says
even bought his mother a new washer)
to what strange young man
whose daughter is getting married
(sure and he's a queer fella but then
what would you be expectin' from a townie
they're a strange lot they are)
the lot of them gather there
in the backroom of Power's Store
waiting for some news
to walk up the road
or for some young one to join them
with a guitar and an appetite for drink
best if they have a repertoire of Irish songs
but only if they belong to a musical family
if not sure ya can't be up to that crowd
(sure they don't know how to sing
remember that time the poor child's mother
tried to rise it at the shamrock
shockin' carryin' on that was)
always the same aged yet bright eyes
the past of a proud nation
wasting and waiting away
as content as the blue
arsed flies on the salt meat bucket
and about the most beautiful thing
that this mind can recall
the things you miss get stranger
the further away that you are
"While living in Korea I missed the most unusual things, or rather, the most usual things" - Rebecca
Rebecca is the daughter of Ernestine (O’Rourke) and Tom