Child's Play

Drink Shannon to the dregs, they will

and spill her on the way;

drunk with surfeit, bare of sense,

living only for the day. 

And the day will come

when the wasted drops

and the billions wasted before

will float away the ancient mop

dingy and dripping behind the door. 

The children will play at the reservoir

piped in by a very big straw --

funny Dublin blowing bubbles (!)

bigger than any you ever saw. 

When the bubbles burst and float away

and there's no more froth to spill,

the children will see that it's Reckoning Day --

but do you think Dublin will?

Dedicated to the River Shannon.