Shadows and ice damp houses riddled with lice. An open coffin a child's pneumonia gaze. Words from another age land on a page. Half light...

All day just him and me pints and stories giddied up the craic. The afternoon ran away too soon. A fading straggle watched us unravel...

At the bedside in becalmed death light. A fight. Our lady barefoot. All of a flurry. A snow globe scene from Knock or Lourdes. Even now...