_______________________________________

Unbearable to hear just yet

Not the Irish way,
my reaction since the first day
and through the second and third,
turning away from the word.
 
Not joining the crowds who gather
as for a neighbour
not going to the bog or hill
to be pensive, still.
 
Not wanting to hear or know,
quenching the TV, the radio,
full of his voice, calm and slow
from the past, the ago
 
Unbearable to hear just yet,
the news not sunk to the heart,
still a fog in the head,
Seamus Heaney is dead.

Michael Gannon

____________________________________________________