<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></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;"><h1 class="c-hdgSans_2 c-mix-hdgSans_inline c-hdgSans" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; line-height: 1.231;"><font size="4" style="font-weight: normal;" class="">The Lost Land</font></h1></div><div class="c-feature-hd" style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="c-hdgSans_2 c-mix-hdgSans_inline c-hdgSans" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; line-height: 1.231;"><font size="4" style="font-weight: normal;" class=""><br class=""></font></h1></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="">I have two daughters.<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">They are all I ever wanted from the earth.<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Or 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=""><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 also wanted one piece of ground:<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">One city trapped by hills. One urban river.<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">An island in its element.<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">So I could say <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">mine. My own.</span><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 mean 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=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Now they are grown up and far away<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">and memory itself<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">has become an emigrant,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">wandering in a place<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">where love dissembles itself as landscape:<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Where the hills<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">are the colours of a child's eyes,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">where my children are distances, horizons:<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">At night,<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">on the edge of sleep,<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I can see the shore of Dublin Bay.<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Its rocky sweep and its granite pier.<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Is this, I say<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">how they must have seen 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="">backing out on the mailboat at twilight,<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">shadows falling<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">on everything they had to leave?<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 would love forever?<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 then<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I imagine myself<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">at the landward rail of that boat<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">searching for the last sight of a hand.<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="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I see myself<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">on the underworld side of that water,<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 darkness coming in fast, saying<br class=""></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">all the names I know for a lost land:<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="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="">Ireland. Absence. Daughter.</span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: normal;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>- Eavan Boland</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit;" class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><br class=""></span></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>