The Lungo Drom by Raine Geoghegan

 

Raine Geoghegan is from West Sussex. Her poems and short narratives have been published online and in print with Romany Routes Journal, Fair Acre Press, e-book on Maligned Species; Ground, Curly Mind Journal, Ink Pantry

Forthcoming publications: The Travellers’ Times; Café Writers, Issue 5; Fly on the Wall Poetry and Under the Radar.

Raine has been featured in a short film, Stories from the Hop Yards, based on the work of Herefordshire photographer Derek Evans, made by Catcher Media.    

The Lungo Drom


 

Bare, blistered feet.

 

She walked

over stone

on grass

through thicket and brush

in water,

snow,

flowers and mud.

 

Her hair grew long,

flowing like a river.

Tiny silvery fish latching onto each tendril,

longing for the open sea.

 

At night

she slept in bushes, caves, beside trees.

She dreamt of fire.

 

She drank from streams,

picked heather, lavender, rosemary for healing,

exchanged them for bread,

kept on walking.

 

Her hair turned white.

Her bones thinned.

Her body bent over

and her eyes grew weak .

Still she kept on moving.

 

One early morning under a mottled sky

she stopped.

The moon shone in her body.

Light fell on the ground

and she knew

this was her atchin tan.

Raine Geoghegan

More by Raine

Romani Words

The lungo drom – the long road

Atchin tan – stopping place/home