I will meet you at Merrion Square,  you won’t be late? 
he said, with the swish and swag of the Belvedere boy about him.  
But well-mannered and eyes like lapis lazuli. I was detained at Finn’s-
the signature on his note next morning a ship at full sail 
in Dublin Bay. Poised for life, assured, like the way 
he stands on the corner beneath the high silver swan’s neck
of the new electric lamp. Out now, its glass egg
reflects the modern age and glinting windows of Oscar
Fingal O’Flahertie’s house. He stands erect, strolling back 
and forth in the shadow of his mother, May. One vowel.
Barnacle plus Nora, five. In his name the same as mine. 
He likes their sound, my auburn hair, my stride. Worn shoes, 
Paris tie. Swedish cap, like a sailor’s. He doffs it, turning 
in recognition at his salvation and forgets St. John Gogarty waiting.
We smoke Turkish cigarettes, stroll arm in arm
past Nassau Street’s railings. He says he will sing for me 
in August at the Antient Concert Rooms. In our wake
the chemist Sweny’s menthol lingers like a blue halo on cobbles.

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Marguerite Doyle’s poems have been published in TCD’s Icarus, The Waxed Lemon, The Stony Thursday Book, The Honest Ulsterman, and The Ogham Stone. In 2022 she was Winner in Category in the Trócaire / Poetry Ireland Competition. In 2024 she was Winner of the Poets Meet Painters Competition at Kenmare Arts Festival, and in 2025 Marguerite’s entry to The Francis Ledwidge Poetry Award was selected as Highly Commended.

2026 Bloomsday Supplement - Table of Contents