For years we walked past a derelict two-storey lodge
by the bridge at Pearse Street and Grand Canal Quay
once home of the Basin Captain,
beacon for barges between the Liffey and the Shannon.
Footprint excavated, a bare lift-shaft soared
with workmen on scaffolds, week after week.
Steel frames rose, floor upon floor, a high-rise grid
turned skinny sky-scraper of sixteen stories.
Men and women in their twenties, bicycles on balconies,
oblivious of sunshine on the Dublin mountains,
sample The Art of Coffee, keep an eye on the gear
for investors, fund managers, athletes of stocks and bonds
who push to the limit boundaries of the planet;
eye the gruelling bear; angle for the moon
between London, New York, Hong Kong
and Japan, wired to ear plugs and smartphones,
transfixed by graphs, colour-coded bar charts,
sharp dips, steep rises,
livelihoods on screens in the palms of their hands.
Catherine Phil MacCarthy’s most recent collection is Daughters of the House (Dedalus Press). She received the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry in 2014.
by the bridge at Pearse Street and Grand Canal Quay
once home of the Basin Captain,
beacon for barges between the Liffey and the Shannon.
Footprint excavated, a bare lift-shaft soared
with workmen on scaffolds, week after week.
Steel frames rose, floor upon floor, a high-rise grid
turned skinny sky-scraper of sixteen stories.
Men and women in their twenties, bicycles on balconies,
oblivious of sunshine on the Dublin mountains,
sample The Art of Coffee, keep an eye on the gear
for investors, fund managers, athletes of stocks and bonds
who push to the limit boundaries of the planet;
eye the gruelling bear; angle for the moon
between London, New York, Hong Kong
and Japan, wired to ear plugs and smartphones,
transfixed by graphs, colour-coded bar charts,
sharp dips, steep rises,
livelihoods on screens in the palms of their hands.
Catherine Phil MacCarthy’s most recent collection is Daughters of the House (Dedalus Press). She received the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry in 2014.
