County Meath, Ireland

On Meath hills,
chaffinch, robin play sounds of day,
lambs, cows on bass.

Shadow of wind crawls west
over grassy fields reined
by dry stone wall, hawthorn, pine.

Border terrier chases, then leads
an ATV.  A farmer drives sheep
from field where cattle graze.

Above me, peers scout the summit
enter cairn chamber,
eye limestone etchings

as I sit on this stone bench
something of an outcast.
Breathing in afternoon air
and return of words I said at the start,
I will not be last.  

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Doralee Brooks, a teacher-consultant with the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project, teaches in the Developmental Studies Department at the Community College of Allegheny County. Her poems have appeared more recently in Voices from the Attic, Pittsburgh City Paper, and Dos Passos Review. She is an MFA candidate at Carlow University, and writes with the Madwomen in the Attic poetry workshops. Doralee lives in Bridgeville with her husband, Michael, and her grandson, Edley.