OISIN RETURNS

Another Oisin came by, lost eyed to a ghostly star
Down a quiet lane where a homestead forgotten is resting still.
The grass grows over a once-tilled garden:
Upon the thatch that�s caving in, jackdaws cawed and scoffed
From the smokeless stack, a tree reared in fireplace unburning,
Pierced the roof-finding sky as nettles sheltered by walls of
Mossy, heathered stones, waiting like the children�s children
He�d never seen before�

While friends and relations bickered in the graveyard
And he thought of the fruitless years abroad,
Oisin remembered his youth and grieved:
"All my dearest friends are dead, I�m alone - a stranger in my homeland."
Time and place were never his, only now with a misty eye
He saw the dream for what it was and awoke.
The dewy chains were broke and Beauty became defaced,
Like an axe swung but finding its wielder
Killing the illusions of self.

Recovering a little he deliberated: "I�ll return to young America�s shore,
She�s a whore! But will give me solace for gold
Content in her arms I�ll spend my last miserly years.
No more tears will I shed, for I fear sleep more than death
And would only begin my dreaming to be among the Fianna."

Oh Oisin, like your story you�re thousands of years old
The old ways are gone but you�re the last of many
Believers in an extinct religion.
Can you accept newer truths and be with mind
And Soul�.Enlightened�or Enslaved?

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