Bog Myrtle & Peat

If you’re looking for that book of Patrick Kavanagh’s poetry that’s currently checked out of the library, you should know it was me that lost it, far out east on the Lockerbie train. It’s no great secret anymore. I’ve done my time and paid my fine, and I know the Council will never buy another copy to replace the one I lost. For a start, it’s hard to find that book in hardback these days. I’ve made do with a paperback for myself in the aftermath of shame. And for the finish I daresay they’ll be wrapping up the public libraries soon anyway. When it comes to managing a budget, it’s easy work to kill a thing that nobody loves.

But I write this because maybe there’s somebody reading this blog on account of the fact that they couldn’t find that book, and in Great Hunger for the meat of the man himself, they fell to eating boot leather like mine.

All I can be is sorry.