Impossible to Stop

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”
                                                                                       L.P. Hartley

History has a way of
unraveling stories that
make up who we are, who
we may become.

A way of unearthing old
tales of broken bones
from the soil beneath our feet.

A way of telling the heart
stories of our past and lays
out a map for us to move forward.

It stirs from our bellies
a butterfly kind of movement,
an aftertaste,
a thought.

It tells us, not to think too far ahead,
not to fall out of the bed of the present
to savour every single breath, to take notes
from the memory of the past.

It sings in the lines of a refrain,
telling love to learn each note, each melody
caught in the wind of the reeds
or drawn from a violin string.

It tells love not to wait but to listen,
not to weep but to teach.

And what will ours become?
What shall we both create?
When the minds of two
come side by side,
travel here and there
there and here,
impossible to stop
when love shared
leaves a trail of history.

                                                        After Nathalie Handal

Stephen Byrne is a chef and writer in Galway west of Ireland. His work has been published in Ireland, UK, US, Canada, India, and New Zealand. He was shortlisted for The Redline Book Festival Poetry Competition 2014, as well as shortlisted 2011 and longlisted 2014 for ‘Over the Edge’ Poetry competition. He is also guest editor for Scissors & Spackle as well as Associate editor for ELJ Publications.