<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="o-vr o-vr_12x" style="margin: 0px 0px 60px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div class="c-feature" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.231;"><div class="c-feature-hd" style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And Soul</div><div class="c-feature-hd" style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br class=""></div><div class="c-feature-bd" style="margin: 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.3;"><div class="isActive o-poem" data-view="PoemView" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative;"><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">My mother died one summer—<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">the wettest in the records of the state.<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Crops rotted in the west.<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Checked tablecloths dissolved in back gardens.<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Empty deck chairs collected rain.<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">As I took my way to her<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">through traffic, through lilacs dripping blackly<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">behind houses<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">and on curbsides, to pay her<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">the last tribute of a daughter, I thought of something<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I remembered<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I heard once, that the body is, or is<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">said to be, almost all<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">water and as I turned southward, that ours is<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">a city of it,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">one in which<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">every single day the elements begin<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">a journey towards each other that will never,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">given our weather,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">fail—<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""> the ocean visible in the edges cut by it,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">cloud color reaching into air,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">the Liffey storing one and summoning the other,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">salt greeting the lack of it at the North Wall and,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">as if that wasn't enough, all of it<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">ending up almost every evening<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">inside our speech—<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">coast canal ocean river stream</span> and now<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">mother</span> and I drove on and although<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">the mind is unreliable in grief, at<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">the next cloudburst it almost seemed<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">they could be shades of each other,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">the way the body is<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">of every one of them and now<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">they were on the move again—fog into mist,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">mist into sea spray and both into the oily glaze<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">that lay on the railings of<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">the house she was dying in<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">as I went inside.<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-style: inherit; white-space: pre;"> </span>- Eavan Boland</div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit;" class=""><br class=""></div></div></div></div></div><div class="o-grid" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 22px; font-family: adobe-garamond-pro, Garamond, Baskerville, "Baskerville Old Face", "Hoefler Text", "Times New Roman", serif; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div class="o-grid-col_10of12 o-grid-col" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 638.367px;"></div></div></div></body></html>