St Paddy’s Day 2010
I hear there are no snakes in Ireland
Because St Paddy plowed them out.
+++
But where did they go? Into the sea?
Did they flit and swim happily through
Kelp as refugee eels, never trying
Never lying at God’s court of appeals
For displaced animals?
+++
Were their skins scattered in the sea,
Coating the coasts with an endless
Supply of translucent hides
Shuffled off in flight?
How were they used?
Did the weaver’s wind strange undergarments
For concubines and Catholic courtiers?
Did the skins sing in the lacquer of ornate lutes and fiddles?
Did they hang in the light of windows as kaleidoscopes?