Drumnacross by Edward Denniston

No talking to you now, quiet boy,
holding May Elliott’s hand at the back of a ditch
standing beside Bobby the horse’s dead-weight,
eye and mouth sizzling with flies.

No talking to you now, quiet boy,
early one morning looking down from a window
the horse’s head hanging from the rear of a creeled trailer,
rattling its way past the alders and out of the yard.

Quiet boy, no talking to you, hunkering down
under the boards of the tipped-up cart
quizzing Packy the workman about how dead people know
the right place to go when they arrive in heaven.

No talking to you, all on your own
just to feel how brave you might be
walking away from the house to the top of the lane
climbing the gate to the Well field before turning back.

In you, fields, ditches, laneways settled themselves.
The road rose and dipped and twisted its way into town
where someone tossed your hair; said to your mother,
isn’t he the quiet boy? There’s no talking to you now.

Edward’s latest poetry collection, For Crying Out Loud, was published by Salmon Poetry and is available here.

Find out more about Edward on our Contributors’ Page.

(Photo: Dennis Jarvis/flickr.com/CC-BY SA 2.0)

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Edward Denniston

Originally from Longford town, Edward Denniston has lived and worked in Waterford City since 1980, the city to which his Presbyterian ancestor came as a dissenting minister in the early 18th century. As a young boy he inherited his grandfather’s farm at Drumnacross, outside Longford town. Edward is a retired teacher of English and Drama. His publications are: The Point of Singing (Abbey Press, 1999); Eskimo Advice – an e-book (Rectory Press & Hayrake Poetry, 2007); Interacting – 60 Drama Scripts (Russell House Publishing UK, 2007); The Scale of Things (Salmon Poetry, 2013) and For Crying Out Loud (Salmon Poetry, 2017). Hospital Voices (2018), in collaboration with composer, the late Eric Sweeney, for the 25th Anniversary of Waterford Healing Arts Trust. As editor: Teachers Who Write (Waterford Teachers’ Centre, 2018). In 2021, Entry and Exit Wound: a text to accompany music composed by Grainne Mulvey and first performed at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.

VITAL (Compost Poetry, 2023) is his most recent collection.

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