Recovery

 

sleek men are on the streets again,

suited, slick and tie-less;

 

women in black, clicked and smart,

not daring to be over forty;

 

all of an age

in their open easy fashion

they loudly crowd the pavements and the wine bars

near the Shelbourne and Fitzwilliam.

 

man-bags, girl-bags, brief-bags slung with careless lies

stuffed with evidence of worse to come.