Apart From Worldly Things

Home to Ireland

[image: flickr/ dr_urbanis (Martin)]

I've never been to Ireland—
never seen the patchwork landscape,
spreading, green, through a hazy sunlight.
Gray oceans crashing on rocky shores,
craggy mountains climbing
toward billowing skies—
I have never seen.

But the blood that now courses through me
has fed the hearts of Irish men and women.
They have spoken in the sing-song Gaelic tongue
and danced to raucous, rhythmic tunes
in a country pub.
Their eyes have scanned the clovered fields,
and they have savored the salted vapor
of the Irish sea.

Perhaps one day I will travel so far,
and visit the storied land
of my ancestors.

And when I see
those emerald fields
and taste the salty breeze,

I will know
that I am
home.

[recently discovered, with the help of dna testing, that I'm about 1/4 Irish! please vote & comment!]