Cloudberries, Michael Longley

You give me cloudberry jam from Lapland,
Bog amber, snow-line tidbits, scrumptious
Cloudberries sweetened slowly by the cold,
And costly enough for cloudberry wars
(Diplomatic wars, my dear).

Imagine us
Among the harvesters, keeping our distance
In sphagnum fields on the longest day
When dawn and dusk like frustrated lovers
Can kiss, legend has it, once a year. Ah,
Kisses at our age, cloudberry kisses.

I have had the best day, separately, with two people who mean very much to me. The latter especially. We played pool for hours, talked about our ambitions, Rome, whilst I read his poetry.

It's such a shame I have to go back to Manchester on Saturday. I'm looking forward to spending my summer in Belfast more than ever.