out of the tunnel
Mhuirnlaoch dunadhach
by Morgan Downie

sea-thief, he who dwells with horses,
who drops his name careless
into a well, listens as the world
fills with a clatter he calls his own

penny his eyes, the stillborn son,
send him into the west until he returns
black sailed, salt-scarred hands spilling
stories on the sand of home

now, ask his name
and he will tell you
of another man

IMAGE: “Out of the Tunnel” by Morgan Downie.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: My name, very loosely, means sea-dweller and horse-thief. Playing around with it in Welsh, Scots, and Irish Gaelic ended up in Mhuirnlaoch Dunadhach, which only has a passing acquaintance to the horse thief who dwells beside the sea. I’m very interested in the naming of places, how they change, their significance and how they fade.

downie

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Morgan Downie writes short stories and poetry and is a visual artist. His first collection stone and sea was published by Calder Wood press. This was followed by distances, a Romanian-English photopoetry collection, and a lazarus, a chapbook-length collection that was shortlisted for the qartsilunni prize. He has been shortlisted for the Macallan, Orange, and Bridport prizes.