This is the taste of the passage of time

that twenty-four hours produce:

crossing the bridge of no alternative

with vision blurred by years of compromise,

achievements fragmentary and forgotten

in accurate mimicry of nothing.

So hold up a sun of your own making

and bask in its comfort and warmth;

race across the stone courtyard

towards a blue sky that no one else sees.

S.C. Flynn was born in a small town in Australia of Irish
origin and now lives in Dublin. His collection The Colour of
Extinction (Renard Press, October 2024) was The Observer Poetry Book
of the Month. An Ocean Called Hope (Downingfield Press, May 2025) is
forthcoming. His poetry has been published in more than a hundred
magazines around the world. He has been highly commended in the
Erbacce Prize and nominated for Best of the Net. He has very recently
given readings at the Waterford Gallery of Art, Ardgillan Castle and
Notre Dame University.

Main Image by David Street