Smithereens Press Chapbooks SP14 - The Lighthouses by Daragh Breen | Page 18

Cows were brought out to these small islands
one by one, knocked over first on the beach,
hooves bound and tilted into the bottom
of the currachs, the men straining on their oars
as they manoeuvred through the waves
with these cargoes of meat screaming on their backs.
One island moved their new bull
out to an isolated islet rock
and listened to his groaning
all through the night. His silhouette
could be seen in the shadow-void of
lightning,
and then just as quickly fainting back into
the pursuing thunder’s darkening hail.
At dawn they woke to witness the bull
stumbling ashore on the strand, seaweed
dripping from him, having swum the narrow sound.
One of the Blasket Islands’ best known airs,
‘Port na bPúcai’, was borrowed from a
lovelorn male humpback whale
singing beneath a currach.

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