Moonless County Roads
       

As though we are crossing
a continent or the great American desert
instead of travelling 17 short miles
uphill from Ennis to Letterkelly.

Once you are inside this postage stamp
island and get to know it
you become lost in a much larger world
and no longer care how vast
the sky or the outside world is.

Tonight as we take the sharp bends
the narrow road embraces us, gathers
around our shoulders like a comforting
old wool coat on a rainy night.

As we travel up its dark tunnel—
Fáilte the old road says—we
feel welcomed, at home again.

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Copyright © 2018 Carlos Reyes All rights reserved
from Along the Flaggy Shore: Poems from West Clare
Salmon Poetry
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission