Poem: Dead Sea by John MacKenna

Dead Sea

Once, many years ago,
I swam in the Mediterranean.
It was autumn and the tide brought in dead olive leaves.

Now, much further out from shore,
the lifeless rise and fall again. Dead olive
leaves pressed on their skin, stained shadows of the season.

John MacKenna

John MacKenna's collection of poems, By the Light of Four Moons, was published by Doire Press earlier this year. His adaptation of Ernest Shackleton's book South for younger readers will be published in 2016.