You said I had stayed true
To the one you'd met
In 1999:
14 years old
Soon to turn 15
Holding your hand
Listening to REM
One earphone each.
Blue ink on dark green leaves
Long distant honeyed eves
And then the purple gold
Leaping the fence of memory
You told me of the horse
Who you adopted when the school said
"This one's run its course"
They said that he was jumpy, grumpy
Dangerous to ride
But he rose up in dignity
Your patient love beside
Crescent moon sinking in
In to my skin
Ocean of St Patrick's blue
Needle white piercing
I'd meet you on the cliffs of Moher
In the ruins of Galway
Tell each other stories
The man in Dublin said that you
"Should take a left instead
When the sign says to turn right"
But you went straight ahead
Guided to the sanctuary
To which your heart was led
You sent one more letter
But I tried to burn that thread
There's no parachute
But there is no ground
Twenty years buried in the skin
Purple gold thread found
Dancing with the needle moon
Singing with the coy-wolves
Opening the ocean's wounds