Reveniens

To someone of a Goth sensibility like myself, revenant will suggest a ghostly or animated corpse returned from the grave, the word being derived from the Latin reveniens (returning). But these ghosts or now empty shells may be metaphorical, not just supernatural. The word echoes Mary Coughlan mourning Whisky Didn’t Kill the Pain, particularly the line. “If you had stayed with me my fiery lover/ Together we’d be embers in my brain.” Not just a lament for what was, but what could have been. “Revenant” manifesting as the shell of a future long lost.  

Deep in her Eyes is based on the accompanying sketch which I did some thirty years ago and physically based it on a photo found in a student magazine. But its sub text is one most of us will recognise. To love and lose, then later realise what was really lost.

 

 

 

Deep in her Eyes

 

Down in the wine bar

A girl I once knew

Alone in a corner

She waits for a man

 

“Come by my side

It’s been a long time”

This change disturbs

What form are you?”

 

Back to her place

Drinks with no care

What did life deal?

My revenant lover 

Charm on the stairway

She turns and smiles

Her ghostly whisper

“I know you so well.”

 

Barry McCann