After Amergin

I am the shine of neon on black leather.
I am the life that courses under concrete.
I am the tree against the city sky.
I am the old couple sitting on church steps.
I am the hue and cry.

Children tag and scream around me
my eyes embrace the neighborhood,
my people.

I am the bakery on the corner.
I live in scents of sugar and vanilla.
I am the drunken men outside the bar
(glass smashes on the wall, that too, is me).
I am the song in every poets heart.
The goodness of the fog flows through me,
I am the shaper of the fog.
And all these wanderers, are me.
I am the thinning hair of wisdom.
I am the sheen of silver
on the young man's face.
I am the slash of purple on her mouth,
(lips longing for a taste of life).
I am her longing.
I am the prayers that rise up
from the temple.
I am the dancers in the grove of trees.

Bicycles carve runnels in the street,
carrying my sounds
within their wheels.

I am the woman with her shopping cart
I am the dog that strains against the leash.
I am the cats on backyard fences
(sleeping under laundry in the sun).
I am in the smell of unwashed flesh.
And the brightness of the morning.
I am the sigh of jasmine scaling trellis.
I am the music booming from low cars.
I hum along the telephone wires,
and dream.
The red of bougainvillea lifts my head,
I catch it on my waiting tongue
(and give away the kiss).
I am the juice of passing lovers.
I am incense from the seller.
The music climbing walls from the guitar.

I am the song of all of these.
My shoulders bear the weight
of all these lives.

I am the wind and rain, the covered earth.
I am the watching sky, the eye of God.
I am ancestor, and keeper of the future,
(hear my song).

T. Thorn Coyle

(Amergin Glungel was a Celtic Bard of ancient legend,
who is said to have written the "Song of Power")