saint francis of a healy

Morning at the Chateau de Healy.
Ireland's greatest living poet is in the kitchen enjoying a coffee with the robin.
Yes.
Robin Red Breast esquire has taken to joining me for breakfast.
Paddy White Breast, a sheepdog of some repute, can hardly believe it.
Thankfully he prefers biscuits to robins.
Just about.
As long as I keep plying him with the biscuits he has promised me not to ingest any of God's creatures who happen to fly by.
So the robin and the sheepdog share my company amiably enough each morning for about an hour.
I am considering inviting MC Hamster to join us in the near future.
The door opens.
Enter the Lil.
She too likes biscuits but rarely accepts them as bribes.
"What the hell is going on?" quoth she full of the joys of living.
Robin flits into the dining room.
Paddy Pup watches him go with a wistful look in his eye.
"Nothing," sez I innocently.
"Are you bringing that bloody robin into the house every day now?" quoth the Mammy.
I spread my arms helplessly.
"What can I do about it?" I protest.
"You can throw a dish towel over him and put him back outside," quoth she between gritted teeth, "before he sh-ts all over the place."
Well bold readers, since reaching the age of reason (Heelers is referring to 38 - Ed note) I've realised there's no point arguing with my gentle mother when she is in such a mood.
With statesmanlike discretion I follow robin into the dining room, open a window, and usher him through it.
A prophet is never welcome in his own chateau.

the skyfarer

regent moon riding
through fields flung open wide
like a kingdom god intended
just for me to step inside

riches now a trifle
faint remembered care
in the warm wind's ruffle
by the light of a million stars

now i knew the universe
now i felt at peace
until i saw two lovers kissing
by the gateway to the fields

their faces drank the moonlight
their eyes outshine the stars
and waning in my heart i knew
the universe is theirs

i'll walk no more the night time
nor watch where two caress
a moment holding everything
a lifetime nothingness

marriage guidance with the lady known as lil

Coffee with the Mammy in the Whitewater Centre.
She is reminiscing about the early days of her marriage.
Presently she springs the following on me.
"When we lived on main street Tallaght, most of our neighbours were young families. Some of the housewives got into the habit of coming to me with their problems. They'd be telling me all these things about their husbands and I wouldn't know what to say. So I got into the habit of advising them: Don't worry about that, my husband does that as well. I'd say this no matter what the problem. It seemed to be working out very well until one day your father arrived home and told me he'd met such and such a one and she'd cut him dead in the street. Then he noticed another one glaring at him in church. It got so bad that whenever we'd meet the neighbours, the wives would be shooting me sympathetic glances and quietly giving him the cold shoulder. Eventually he got suspicious and he began to ask me what I'd been telling them. Of course I denied everything."

suddenly london