Sample unseen poem

Evelyn O’Connor

Mother says “don’t look at the sun, it will blind you”

so I don’t look at her.

I orbit the past, a seething mass of nuclear energy.

Sunspots float before my mind:

swimming in the pool, splashing in the sea, going to the library

eating Easter chocolate nests, plum puddings at Christmas,

gingerbread men and

now and then éclairs

oozing

cream

down

greedy

fingers.

Once I saw a solar eclipse

your edges suddenly clear and crisp,

burning strength into our bones.

But it was over all to quickly

and my vision blurred.

Then I confess I found you lost

convinced we had gobbled you up

so many of us always wanting, needing,

asking, pleading, bleeding dry your store of selfless love.

Yet you never burn out, you never burn up.

Doubtless we could search to the ends of the earth

for something you would not do for us

but why waste time?

The sun keeps shining and never will die.