The Lure of an Island, Abandoned

Outside the schoolhouse, artists gather round
a blue-eyed girl who poses on a chair.
A scumbling brush on canvas joins the sound
of sheep and wren and waves against the pier.

An artist paints the island in her hair,
another draws the ruins in her eyes.
Each hand creates a portrait of an heir
to empty houses taken by the tides.

At midnight on the beach, the artists call,
they light a torch and signal ancient Ogham.
Under the solstice sky, they stand in awe,
through colour, hail the emigrants back home.

Aunt Bridget left the isle long ago.
Her best advice is, “Look at it and go.”