MONUMENT Last week I watched her being carried Towards a green gash in the convent grounds in Middletown. Yesterday she lifted me from tears Because the stones were sharp-toothed. She carried me skywards Between the high bog of crimson-umber bilberries And the cello-music of the swollen Shannon Past the bridge of Rooskey To Ardbraccan And over to Bornacoola To the white marble monument Which stands Between the old monastery and the Ogham Stone, Last week I watched her being carried Towards a green gash In the convent grounds In Middletown. Today I engrave her name Clara O Beirne On the white marble monument Which stands Between the old monastery And the Ogham Stone In Cloonmorris graveyard. -- Patricia Burke, "Leitrim Guardian" 1996, first published in "The Salmon" #19, Autumn 1988