Summer sounds

 Listening not seeing

I’ve closed my eyes and turned off Twitter

To focus on the summer sounds

Of voices on the wind that escape the beach

The excited cries of swimmers

The laughter of young children

Over the hedgerow choir who sing

Busy as ever even though summer has arrived. . 

The July heat has escaped from

Spain 

To turn our meadows brown. 

A sultry stillness settles on our sleepy land

While old men doze and young girls dream

Of creamy skin with Wexford tans

To bring home when school begins

In far off Dublin up the motorway

That bakes in heat while lorries travel

Near by passed towns to the ferries

That queue for space in fair Rosslare. 

Sitting in the sun-house counting 

Blessings far too numerous

But grateful for this window

Into heaven and a paradise

That lies just round the corner

When the sun arrives and shines

In ireland of a thousand shades 

Of green and blonde and brown.