Aungier Street

South of the Liffey, below the Temple Bar 

Aungier Street bisects the old Dublin town 

With its broad intersections and busy streets 

If you’re not going up you’ll be travelling down 

In Aungier Street where the spirits are high 

Dublin’s heart skips to a raucous beat 

In cafés, watching colours as they drift on by 

to the traffic noises and the shuffling feet

There’s lurid graffiti on the hoarding boards 

down cobbled lanes, street artists paint 

To be sure, every pub is an Irish pub 

and each shrine is for a Catholic saint

Where guitars blare and the music rocks 

U2 and McGowan stare from walls of bars 

A cartoon of Lynott on a street junction box 

 says there’ll always be whiskey in the jar

From the quaint old book shop, ragged men 

eye street girls through dim window panes 

‘Cross the street’s a pub called the Bleeding Horse 

with wooden booths and mysterious stains

The world comes alive down Aungier street 

A stone’s throw from St Stephen’s Green 

Enjoy the craic where the strangers meet 

Head south and you’ll see what I mean

Steve Wheeler © 29 October, 2021

Image source: Steve Wheeler