I sing this
and it never fails—
I pretend that I’m back
in Wicklow,
with Esme
and Dillan M’Kale.

On the road once,
I met this guy ‘Quasit,’
who reminds me what
true love is for,
as he fought on for his
Illyana,
through the cold
and the dark
and the storm.

When I’m up at night,
eyes on the ceiling,
and I vow to be brave
as he,
for the life that
I once knew in Wicklow,
and all things
still yet to be.


© Katherine Steffeter