Kevin McManus is a poet from County Leitrim in Ireland. In 2021 he published a poetry collection entitled “The Hawthorn Tree” with Lapwing Publishers, Belfast. He has been published in a number of journals including, the Honest Ulsterman, The Madrigal, the Cormorant, and the Galway Review. 

The lark in the clean air

The Summer sun shimmered through the leaves
and the shadows of the ash swayed upon the pebble-dashed walls,
the sound of the river flowed over the rounded mossy stones
and the waters ran deep after a hard night’s rain.

The red front door was ajar,
a song from the morning radio floated from beyond the hall,
in the kitchen, the female voice sang the lark in the clean air
as the rasher and the egg danced on the pan.

June had arrived from out of the cold shadows,
and we thought that the longer days would last forever,
packing our cares away in the forgotten places,
as the joy of youth stretched out before us.