Poems by Jack Mitchell - Galway, Christmas Week, '93
(by Jack Mitchell)
Oompa-ooompa
oompa-pa-pa-oompa -
oompa-paaa
oompa-oompa-oompa -
Saint Patrick's Brass giving it a lash
in the rain and the four-o'clock gloom
of shimmering Shop Street:
'Once in Royal David's City'.
Cars coast the crowd.
A bad day for buskers, thought I,
then saw him, sitting in his usual chair,
laid back, blissful,
his pipe strapped bowl-down to his old accordeon,
playing to the turned backs of the brass band gapers,
blind Joe Gaynor, a man apart -
'Once in Royal David's City', key-perfect,
As I moved down
a carolling of bells
eased in on the tuba's dying grunts.
Ten bells and all's well,
ding-donging out from behind
the beaming dials of Old Nick's steeple,
festive, peaceful,
a musical card waiting for snow,
and I opened it and saw
a gleeful clutch of Church of Ireland pealers,
bouncing up and down, belting it out -
'David's City' to a faint band's playing.
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©Renate Mitchell. May not be reproduced in any form online or offline without explicit written permission.
