This sonnet from my latest collection Angel Hour (2021) is based on a heart-shaped stone in the wall of a former convent school on O'Connell Avenue, Limerick City, not far from where I live.
Who keeps re-painting the stone bright red?
I suggest an answer to this question in the second part of the poem.
THE HEART IN THE WALL
In the boundary wall of a convent school
close to my home, there’s a heart-shaped stone
under hanging leaves. Half-meshed in sleep,
I’m waiting at a bus-stop by the wall
to join the morning rush-hour’s obsequies,
and notice that the stone has been redone
bright red, the scrawl of teen initials gone:
a valentine shines nameless under boughs.
A boy once loved a girl who took the veil,
choosing the ghostly company of saints.
An old man now, at night he travels still
once or twice a year to rejuvenate
the heart contained within the convent wall.
Somebody holds a torch for him; he paints.
© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2021
