Kevin McManus is a poet-writer from Leitrim in Western Ireland. He has published six novels, a collection of short stories and two books of poetry. His most recent poetry book called “The Hawthorn Tree” was published by Lapwing Publications, Belfast.

His poems have been published in various journals including the Cormorant, the Madrigal and the Honest Ulsterman. His new poetry collection, “A bell in the white morning” is published in October.

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Like dust in the wind

It was such a long time ago,
thirty years or more,
so much time had flowed away,
many days had come and gone
and disappeared like dust in the wind,
but he remembered that one.

It was a September Sunday,
they had arrived to take him home,
the bottle green car was
parked in the drive,
the engine still turning
small hands upon the fogged-up glass.

Decisions and indecisions abounded
in the air of the darkened parlour,
the good room,
fresh flowers in the brown vase,
by the net curtain window,
gathered from the garden
of yesterday.

Promises of more tomorrows
floated in his dreams,
but alas the reveries
cut short by the knock
on the red door.

Gathering the tartan case
and the scant belongings
in the carry-all,
he walked the path,
beyond the gate,
turning his face back
one more time
to try and capture it all
a camera flash in his mind’s eye,
he would replay this scene,
over and over again
until the picture would finally fade.