Pebble

(Curracloe Beach, Co. Wexford)

On the beach at Curracloe -
so lonely and long
that Time stopped
to take a lazy break -
you chose a white stone
for me to keep and mark the day.

The shape, the smooth skin,
bring to mind a childhood sweet
thoughtfully dissolved
behind the Earth's milk-teeth.
The shade, so pale and soft,
conceals a crystallographer's ordeal.

My gift. A bit of Michelangelo, destroyed,
a faded Polaroid of Earth before The Flood,
your childish choice.
The one stone your fingers touched
has thus become the rarest pearl,
the seed of coves where souls will bathe.

Gingko biloba*

(planted 1956)

A life concealed, to blind eyes,
without deceit. Ancient stock,
disclosed by soft imprints of leaves
on rocks unhurried by the clock.

Grown with the world, for all to see,
through muted glories of springs,
and winters, long and without clothes,
alone before the bloom was born.

Wearing a name of maiden's mane,
dismissed as fossil by the inane,
you have become the only tree,
and I, the eye to you revealed.

My friend, how much must you have learned
standing by the Garden's gate,
how silent you remain, amazed
before the torrent of our days.

(*) The Ginkgo is a living fossil, first appeared on Earth 100 million years ago. On the Trinity campus (in Dublin) we have both fossil and live specimens. The local common name of the tree is 'maiden's hair'.

^

Biography

Miguel de Arce was born in Spain but now
lives and works in Ireland. He is a
member of the Dublin Writers Workshop.
His work has appeared in several previous
issues of Electric Acorn.