Mary Guckian, ‘December Lights in Pearse Street’, Studies: An Irish Review, Vol. 98, No. 392 (Winter, 2009), 378. JSTOR link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25660700–December Lights in Pearse Street

Damp air hangs
Over Pearse Street
On a cold December day.
Along the footpath
Oily steel blue bulbs
With a frosty sheen
Blink from windows.

Traffic lights turn
Red, for seconds
The temperature rises.
Green lights return
Punch the foggy air
Bring colour back
To a leafless street

At South Dock Square
Red matchstick poles
Reflect on icy water,
Where weaving waves
of the Grand Canal
forge movement,
A reminder of logs
Blazing on hearth stones
At Christmas time.