Dirt for dirt’s sake hovers around the
Georgian facades and foibles of Dublin
it won’t, doesn’t want to change,
there’s power in staying the same
there are hundreds of years of change
to overcome – perhaps it never will.
Eugene learnt Irish, not English history
I learnt English, not Australian,
Zimbabweans learnt their great ruins
Could not have been built by Africans.
The coffee shop is crowded with lecture-goers
harsh vowels and breathy exclamations.
They take over more and more
pushing me further into the corner.
Why so much gibbering, gabbling
Dublin seems full of it
but it’s better than the black silence.
.
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).
2026 Bloomsday Supplement - Table of Contents
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