The Cardiff Poem:
By Marty Drury
Lights blink in the slumber of the skies,
Preludes to the dance of the fireflies,
There’s a song within these streets tonight,
Of cheer and hope, no cause for fright,
Round one corner an Australian wishes you “G’day”,
Round another, an Irishman’s lilt sends you on your way,
Or makes you stop and pause for breath, for thirst, for play,
Toasting the promise of an oncoming day,
Stop. Hush. Hear the whispers of the morning,
Something is here, a day, a wish, a dawning,
The concrete tableau is broken,
And all of a sudden, businesses are open,
Stores, stalls, the paper vendor,
Shouting out the news and returning it to sender,
Tourists unfurl their maps
And graduating students dock their caps,
Culture sits on every corner, treats to discover,
In the embrace of the elements or under cover,
A drink, a snack, a coffee, a tea,
The promise of tomorrow? Well, we’ll see…
In the parks we’ve whiled away the hours,
Conversing with the flowers,
And though the days are long and bold,
There is a stillness, a chill, a cold,
That tells us time has marched on ahead,
And along the path to home we should tread,
Or maybe just one more stop here and there,
A shop window through which to stare?
One side beauty, the other sport,
A walk along the bridge, a pause for thought,
Gazing at the castle, enchanted by the mystery,
We emissaries of the present, calling back to history,
Oh, there is so much that we could see…
And yet, time will not wait for thee,
And as for me, well…
All’s one for that,
I borrowed nine lives from a fictional cat,
But even those are not enough,
Life has been hard and sometimes rough,
But oh, to have found this wonderful place,
That puts a smile on my face.
