Mr Mel McMahon
Head of English in the Abbey CBS
wins 3rd place in National Poetry Competition at Stormont
As Light Leaves
When all of this comes to pass
I want it to fall in autumn
After a full summer
When gardens have been plumped
By brief showers and sunlight-
Fruit and flowers just on the verge
Of passing their prime,
The air a light bristle of distant lawnmowers,
Their baskets brimming
With what should be the last cut,
And the air scored with swifts and swallows
Not knowing if their imminent departure
Is really a leaving, really a going home.
