EVER EVER LAND
(  for Mary Ford )

every year
Summer would come

and take the train
down to Cork

throwing trees
and fields at him

so that cows
and chickens came

to see how he was
getting on

since the last time
time had gathered them

together in
the one place

he talked to rivers
and skies

made up stories
for them to recite

back to him
which they did

so that they could live
in his mind

his Uncle Mikey
was a magician

making words do
whatever he told them to

Ballea was a fairy story
of a farm

full of happy
ever afters

that made him the Prince
of his own story

and that childhood
was a land

where he would
live forever