shamrock

by Danny Daw

Three is perfect. So many

of you already agree,

with your three-personed

god, the fairytales I hear

you read to children

through open windows.

My three leaves

were your healers

once. It was I

who calmed your bones,

I who thinned the blood

to ease your heavy hearts.

I was Belfast’s medicine,

Dublin’s remedy, panacea

for Antrim and Cork.

Even now, no snakes

prey on this isle

I have given you all.

So why do you stamp me

into the earth searching

for a cheap imitation?

Let us love and live

together once more,

as in times gone.

I am here. Four leaves

bring no luck,

only wasted time.

Danny Daw is a Ph.D. student studying poetry at the University of North Texas and previously earned an MFA in creative writing from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His work has appeared previously in Inscape, Wales Haiku Journal, tsuri-dōrō, and elsewhere. He lives and writes with his spouse, the poet Alexandra Malouf.