The old man opposite me is staring
at the empty table as if he’s staring down
the years, staring down a long highway
or simply staring at the present moment

incredulous he’s come this far while
the cafe plays ‘and I will walk 500 miles…’
He looks like a man who’s earned the right
to sit and not be occupied with anything.

He’s very particular about his order, yet
barely needs to explain. They know exactly
how he likes it as he comes here every day
in his skewed farmer’s nothing-blue jumper.

An older woman enters, says ‘grand morning’
as if she’s done this many times before too.
He simply nods. He’s the sort of man who
doesn’t need conversation, not anymore.

He sips coffee, eats a full cooked breakfast
at an average pace. I decide to call him Bernard.
I’ve arrived in this town with nothing
and no-one, only my long gone grandfather

and now, Bernard. Both know this town
and why my grandfather had to leave Ireland
at nineteen. Bernard stayed, probably
handed on the farm, now owns a modest cottage

on a narrow street below the English castle:
no front yard, only a thin pavement with
plastic flowers in the window. I imagine
the three of us discussing the old days,

me asking about the English as both
burst into song: Bernard on solid accordion,
my grandfather jigging with his fiddle,
as I fling my arms and legs in all directions

too enthusiastically between tin whistle riffs.
‘I’m feeling it,’ I’d call out, grandfather tearing up.
Then he’d share the joke about the Englishman
the Scotsman and the Irishman.

**

Cath Drake is from Perth and lives in London, UK. The Shaking City (Seren Books), longlisted in the international Laurel Prize, highly commended in the UK Forward Prize, followed Sleeping with Rivers, Poetry Book Society choice, winner of the Seren/Mslexia pamphlet prize. Published widely in anthologies and literary journals internationally, Cath is also a mindfulness teacher, an award-winning environmental writer and she hosts The Verandah, quality online poetry events. https://www.cathdrake.com/

P76 issue 9: Poetries of place/ displacement/ diaspora/ odyssey: On-line Edition. Table of Contents