Two Poems

Advent in Co. Fermanagh
Two chemists in one village,
side by side,
ours and theirs;
both specialise in cattle cures.
The greengrocer, meanwhile,
doubles as undertaker;
his potatoes
always hard and white,
beautifully laid out.

The town is bottle-shaped
and dressed for Christmas
in a morse code of coloured lights,
marginal snow
in crescents at the windows,
and on the sill,
in the holly's gloss
...