A Kite for Michael and Christopher

A second poem about family lines: initially a father with his own father then this same father with his sons. The poem contains various themes: parenthood, the human condition, belief and doubt, the tethered spirit, the fate of being Irish. It is about ‘sticking together’. A generation ago All through that Sunday afternoon the kite flew,literally high in the sky, metaphorically unaffected by the restrictions traditionally imposed by the Catholic Sabbath: … above Sunday The plaything possessed a tightened drumhead body and wind-buffeted tail, likened to an armful of blown chaff, the latter offering it stability and proper flight; without it the kite would plummet to the ground. Heaney had observed its papier mâché construction and tested its properties: at first […]