Even the baths feel tighter, smaller,
rigid as the coffin behind etched glass
in the undertaker’s carriage on parade,
so beautiful everyone stares,
the black-plumed horse clopping
through the College Street crowds.

People worship heads in bullet-proof glass,
mothers pray for any miracle
but childbirth, crypts are full
of crepe-paper bodies you can touch
and superstitions as thick as 12th
century walls. The doors of
St Patrick’s creak in no wind at all.

Around the corner, the dirty tenements
and the Guinness factory brewing its
molasses-black tonic for the populace.
Faces threaten, eyes watch tourists,
hollows wear early in cheeks from
tough winters and too much history.

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Bronwyn Rodden is an award-winning artist and writer who grew up in Sydney but now lives on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Her most recent publication is Stranded a selection of her poetry published by Flying Island Press (2024).