Poem of the Week: “The Door” by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

The Door

When the door opened the lively conversation
Beyond it paused very briefly and then pushed on;
There were sounds of departure, a railway station,
Everyone talking with such hurried animation
The voices could hardly be told apart until one

Rang in a sudden silence: ‘The word when, that’s where you start’–
Then they all shouted goodbye, the trains began to tug and slide;
Joyfully they called while the railways pulled them apart
And the door discreetly closed and turned from a celestial arch
Into merely a door, leaving us cold on the outside.

–Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, from The Sun-fish (2010)