Ebb Tide

Here,

is where I am,

and where I’ve come to see you,

while the light remains,

and there is time enough

to embrace it;

here,

where the ebb tide leaves

its mark on the breathless

face of passion,

and the day lays bare

the trembling world before us;

here,

where a blue wave burns

its fingers on the shingle of a shore

it can’t hold onto,

and where you walk alone

in December’s dark light;

here,

where you ponder

the graceful dexterity of limbs

no longer clinging to the rainy edges

of a mountain, and where the glow

of youth has faded from your hair;

here,

where you are mulling over

the marvel of your marvelous body

and its slow descent from heaven

to this gold labyrinth

that has stolen all your dreams;

here,

where you live a life

of rigid self-control, and are less

dismissive now

of those dizzying desires

driving fireflies to their doom;

here,

where you fear the spectre

of some dark unending nothing,

and where you strive sometimes

to unfreeze that flowing world

beneath your veil of ice;

here,

where you are sitting

among the rocks

in your blue robe, and only

two small buttons away

from baring all;

here,

where my heart is a wind

wrapping itself around the dead heat

from your marriage bed,

and where everything will happen

if you only give the word;

for here 

is where I am,

and where I've come to meet you,

while the light remains,

and our wise but reckless souls 

are ready to be enflamed.

Martin Mc Carthy is a contributing editor to the American poetry website, The HyperTexts. He lives in Cork City, Ireland, where he studied English at UCC and was awarded the H. Dip. in Education. His poems and essays have appeared in numerous print and online publications. He has published three poetry collections: Lockdown Diary (2020), Lockdown (2021), and The Perfect Voice (2023). A fourth collection,

The Book of Desire, is currently awaiting publication. He was shortlisted for the Red Line Poetry Prize, and is a nominee for the 2023 Pushcart Prize. The Perfect Voice, his epic fourteen-page YouTube tribute to Bob Dylan can be heard here. A limited signed and numbered print edition can be purchased in the store at mccarthypoet.com