"AHHHH PADDY IS IT YOURSELF THAT'S IN IT?"
( In memory of Paddy Kavanagh )

"Howya Paddy!"
I address him
in the friendleist of terms

Paddy doesn't say a word
as not only is he dead
but a statue into the bargain

I switch to
thought-thinking
"Ahh that's better!" snaps Paddy

"I suppose ya couldn't
wipe that pigeon poo
from my left eye?"

he clocks on that
today I am
bicycle-less

"Where's the wheels?"
he asks gruffly
"Dead!" I almost cry  

"Dead is it
ya don't tell me!"
"Dead surely!"


"Cycling to an interview
I was so I was
and a posh car knocked me down!"

"Terrible,,,terrible!" Paddy sighs
"But sure tell me
did ya get the auld job!"

"Indeed I didn't and sure
wasn't it the interviewer
that knocked me down!"

"No...no!" he whistles
through his teeth
I hoosh a pigen off his head

we had a bit of a contretemps
about signalling
I said I had...he said I hadn't

"Listen..." says the statue softly
a drop of rain
landing on his chin

"Ya wouldn't read
one of me poems
ta me....would ya?"

"I would to be sure
sure isn't that the why
I've come here today!"

and so I begin
the daily ritual
turning my voice into his words

"Every old man I see..."
and I see his old ghost smile
"In October-coloured weather"

Seems to
say to me
I was once your father"

"Ahhh!" the statue says to me
"Yer a grand man...a grand man
so ya are!"