The Speed of the Earth
He sees a stainless-steel spoon
burned off at the base,
a bunch of wild flowers dropped,
a builder’s padded glove
plastered flat, a car slumped
in black ashes and glass.
He imagines his classmates
singing out the bargain
they will try to keep again today,
apples and oranges
for them to eat, bright books
opened fluently together.
He dreams in slow-mo
of football and Keepie Uppie,
of Hangman sketches
on jotters, of buns with raisins,
and a carton of milk
exploding under a lazy shoe.
He chases a magic sentence
looping round his brain –
‘Thirty kilometres every second
is the speed of the earth’,
and as if out of thin air his friend
bounces into step with him.
Patrick Deeley is a poet, memoirist and children’s writer from Loughrea, County Galway. His tenth collection of poems, Keepsake, has just appeared from Dedalus Press. www.patrickdeeley.net