Postcard Aran

On the leeside of a white cottage
near Kilmurvey, I saw,
as I passed by on the way to ancient Dun Aengus,
on a one in a million glorious late summer day,
six variegated cats on a verandah.
They were white and ginger and black
variations on the one theme,
all one family,
sitting there sunning themselves and
delicately cleaning and preening one another:
smudges and splatters and trials and errors
of a couple of feline generations.
Above them on the windowsill was a pot of red geraniums,
hardy plant for an Aran winter.