Ballymarkahan Castle

County Clare, Ireland

I leave Cork before the sun rises

no map, no plan

just the motor’s steady snarl

the road unwinding like a dare

by evening I find the ruins

ivy climbing the tower’s ribs

a warm can of cheap Clare beer

hisses open in my hand

the stone wall holds the day’s heat

I lean back against it

thinking about the text she never answered

and how the air still smells like her shampoo

maybe I close my eyes

or maybe the world shifts

because the next breath carries voices

thin and close as wind through grass

two children stand at the arch

barefoot, dressed in rags of another time

the girl with a braid too neat for this century

the boy holding something that catches the light

they ask where my horse is

if I’m lost

if I’ve brought the bread

I tell them to get lost

my voice cracks on the last word

I want the night, the quiet

just the beer and the ache in my chest

but they don’t move

they only look at me

with the slow patience

of people who have nowhere else to go

I blink briefly

and they’re gone

ivy rustling where they’d been

can half warm, the stars almost out

the road waits somewhere in the dark

for the first time in days

I feel tired enough to sleep