After Viewing The Bowling Match At Castlemary, Cloyne by Greg Delanty

4:00 AM Tuesday, April 18th, 2023

I promised to show you the bowlers

out the Blarney Road after Sunday mass,

you were so taken with that painting

of the snazzy, top-hatted peasant class

all agog at the bowler in full swing,

down to his open shirt, in trousers

as indecently tight as a baseballer's.

You would relish each fling's span

along blackberry boreens and delight

in a dinger of a curve throw

as the bowl hurls out of sight,

not to mention the earthy lingo

& antics of gambling fans,

giving players thumbs-up or down the banks.

It's not just to witness such shenanigans

for themselves, but to be relieved

from whatever lurks in our day's background,

just as the picture's crowd is freed

of famine & exile darkening the land,

waiting to see where the bowl spins

off, a planet out of orbit, and who wins.