IRISH-AMERICAN-L Archives

From: "Jean Rice" <>
Subject: [Irish-American] "The Travellers' Tent" -- Mary GUCKIAN --- (b. 1942 Co. Leitrim>>>Participant, Cultural Exchange w/Boston)
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 11:03:03 -0700

THE TRAVELLERS' TENT

Down at the cross-roads on my way to school,
I would cycle past the travellers
and watch the steam rise
from the dark brown dusky tent.
Shaped like the last quarter of the moon,
it was tiny,
a family lived here quietly
mending our buckets,
making pongers
in different sizes.

We exchanged vegetables and milk
for the goods they provided
tin pongers, buckets
and crepe paper flowers.

After nights of heavy rain
they woke to find
the sagging canvas
sink into the tiny space,
their only heat
the closely packed bodies
within the small tent.

-- Mary Guckian, born 1942, Co. Leitrim
"Perfume of the Soil"

This thread:

• [Irish-American] "The Travellers' Tent" -- Mary GUCKIAN --- (b. 1942 Co. Leitrim>>>Participant, Cultural Exchange w/Boston) by "Jean Rice" <>