Michael Farry

Turlock, California
Easter 2005

We photographed the puddles
mocked the downpour
California teeming our first day there.

Sidewalk and intersection flooded
back yard turloughed,
barbecue adrift in the short-lived lake.

Next day, west coast sunshine,
rainless for the rest of the vacation,
sightseeing, we endured mall to mall perspiration.

A Mayo-man, remembering
sodden Irish winters,
baptised this city in the irrigated valley.

Was he mocking his source,
water-speckled western fields,
endemic dampness to the bone?

Or was it homesickness
for the squelch beneath his heels,
drizzle on his face, freshening skin and soil and soul?

Michael Farry

Turlock was founded in 1871 by Mayoman, John William Mitchell, who chose the name after Turlough in Mayo.

Published in Boyne Berries 1.