MAN IN BLACK

Where the three magenta

Breakwaters take the shove

And suck of the grey sea

To the left, and the wave

Unfists against the dun

Barb-wired headland of

The Deer Island prison

With its trim piggeries,

Hen huts and cattle green

To the right, and March ice

Glazes the rock pools yet,

Snuff-coloured sand cliffs rise

Over a great stone spit

Bared by each falling tide,

And you, across those white

Stones, strode out in your dead

Black coat, black shoes, and your

Black hair till there you stood,

Fixed vortex on the far

Tip, riveting stones, air,

All of it, together.