Crow on a Telegraph Pole

Each time I turn around
end of another living mellifluous sound
Seamus Heaney, Phil Everly, Solomon
Burke, Bobby Womack, Dermot Healy,
Bobby Bland, Ben E and Riley Blues Boy King.

Each time I turn around
end of another living mellifluous sound
leaving all but a crow on a telegraph pole
squawking down.

Open the book, crank up that sound
bring them back, bring them back.
We need them around,
We need them around.

I need them around.

Neil Donnelly’s plays include The Silver Dollar Boysand Upstarts. A collection of poems, Tullamore Train, was published

in 2012