Dirigibles (by Derek Mahon)

Dirigibles (by Derek Mahon)

1We who used to drift
2     superbly in mid-air,
3each a giant airship
4     before ‘the last war’,
5shrink to a soft buzz
6     about financial centres
7surprising visitors,
8     hackers and bean counters
9in cloud-flown highrises.
10     Cloud-slow, we snoop for hours
11on open-plan offices
12     and cloudy cocktail bars.
13Amnesia and mystique
14     have cast into oblivion
15fiery failures like
16     Italia, R101,
17the whole brief catalogue
18     of mad catastrophes;
19and showy Hindenburg
20     of course, the last of these.
21A temporary setback.
22     Our time will come again
23with helium in the sack
24     instead of hydrogen
25while slow idealists
26     gaze at refrozen ice,
27reflourishing rain forests,
28     the oceans back in place;
29at sand and stars, blue skies,
30     clear water, scattered light
31as in the early days
32     of nearly silent flight.
Publication Notes
Derek Mahon, Life on Earth (Oldcastle, Ireland: Gallery Press, 2008). This poem is reproduced on the Griffin Prize Web Site (from a volume on the 2009 International Shortlist).
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011