Poem composed in honour of much loved Offaly woman who passed away in 2024

THERE was much grief in Banagher, Lusmagh and the wider west Offaly area at the passing of much loved local woman, Margaret Barton.

A poem in memory and in honour of Margaret has now been composed by the talented Lusmagh and Tullamore poet, Anthony Sullivan.

THAT LAST CUP OF TEA - Remembering Margaret Barton

'Twas your presence, always the given

At any family occasion

The only needed invitation

Being your sense of a need your hands might fill

And fill by way of selfless care

By our simply knowing you were there

A calming comfort, both soft and fair

Strength as fierce in chaos as gentle when still

Now, arriving early, your absence

Suddenly upon us, this silence

Brings stillness throwing worlds off balance

In moments where we forget that now... you're gone...

Before the weight of remembering

Whispers that truth still bewildering

A loath assent to the fracturing

Of what held strong and shone 'tween each dusk and dawn

Now, the history adored by you

Has a chapter in your name, well due

Storyteller now the story too

And come ev'ry telling of your tale from here

Little things will be the light and shade

As mem'ries fire, and flow, and cascade

All who knew you with our own parade

Like your love, n'er to fade, n'er to disappear

For me, that chair at the table's end

Where many's a night put days to mend

'Tis ever yours, we just have a lend

Like the lend we had of you from way on high

But you've heard that choir whisper, "Come home..."

No more 'round Lusmagh's old roads to roam

And oh how I wish I might have known

When that last cup of tea was a last goodbye.

C. Anthony Sullivan 2024