At eighteen I knew nothing Anne Tannam

At eighteen I knew nothing

of death and dying, so when a girl from college told me three of her brothers had drowned alongside five others, eight bodies in all recovered from Doolin Bay, eight lads not much older than I was then, just down for a weekend music festival, a scorcher of a day, the sea within shouting distance I didn’t have the language, didn’t know the words, never thought to ask her brothers’ names. Anne Tannam