West Coast Ireland
by
Lois Francis
Not cold in Canadian prairie terms
not frosty and brittle with visible breath,
yet bleaker somehow in tree-stripped berms
of moss-covered rocks — of life close to death.No shimmering sunlight blinding on snow,
no minus sixty — wind chill factored in —
but bone-numbing mist and damp, even so
penetrate slicker and jacket and skin.