After Breakfast (With Peter) Costing 5/6d.
a girl in a hooped miniskirt leans against the white door
of the CLOTH MARKET CAFE
it is 10.30 a.m. here are cabbages jewish
artichokes granny pippins & button mushrooms
its so sunny. i spat blood
but i’m smiling now
in my soul i have yr photograph
you lying on the bed with coy curls
its in the fly paper of VOGUE magazine
walking past the GREEN MARKET i saw you no
it was a vision an
out of date Christmas tree
because
you too were tinsel & bonnie lights & streamers & presents
& Evergreen
This poem was published online by kind permission of the family of Barry MacSweeney
All rights remain with the MacSweeney Estate
First published in The Boy from the Green Cabaret Tells of his Mother (London: Hutchinson, 1968).
