It came through my letterbox this morning
A card a letter
An annual visitation
My cousin’s girl Siobhan is writing to me
I recognize black ink
Familiar script
Four pages she has written
At her table
Just for me
To share the life she lives
She opens up her home her heart
Her feelings
And lets me in
To know what’s going on
I ‘did’ her wedding many years ago
The year before I left to find my own
Since then I’ve been adopted
By Siobhan
And every year her words to me have flown
A faithful correspondence through the years
Her father my first cousin
And my friend
Today tells of Mary’s visitation
Such constancy love that knows no end
Brian Fahy
21 December 2022
+ Yesterday I came across a letter from my cousin Raymond, who died in 2021. Written in response to my letter informing him that I had left the priesthood, he quoted back to me the words I had spoken at Siobhan’s wedding. ‘We do not tell our story to anyone. You would be a fool to do so. We tell our story to those we love and to those who love us.’
Erris Poetry 