Ellenfield with Oisín

Shadows softly sway

Sun shines on skin 

relieving breezy chills

Trees are a-twitter with tiny tits,

butterbeaked blackbirds 

and fluttery finches 

as steely-eyed magpies vie for position 

on the ornithological pecking order.

The whir of distant wheels 

bubble wraps us in.

Church bells add to the symphony

or din - depending 

on the mood you're in

Dogs chase balls and tails,

Couples chat inaudibly

A man planks under an evergreen

Another in shorts against a treetrunk 

stretches a calf

Old ladies fillet the order of the day,

Roast the men in power 

for suggesting shorter showers

and letting the turf die unfulfilled in the ground.

The sounds of pucks and clacks and whacks -leather and ash, 

Thumps of O'Neill's balls,

launch and land with thuds.

Hoverflies stop and start 

from the canopy hood 

under which you lie

Missing all of this bliss -

(All of this bliss I would miss

were it not for you) 

Oblivious in your own snugged up sleepiness