This post is also available in: polski (Polish)

Society is every contact between one person and another. All the events, past and future, that come about because two people cross paths.

from What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

I’m sitting on the sofa in a floral dress, but wrapped in a blanket. I don’t really feel like going out; clouds are enveloping me, even though it’s Resurrection. So I force myself to poke my nose out. I put on my coral jacket. After all, my city is always waiting for me.

We sit down to have a flat white in the garden of the Tight Neahtain’s bar. Because there are two women playing and singing so wonderfully on the street. Dressed in colorful coats and scarves, hippies, free-spirited, and gypsy, they ignite the sunshine in me here and now. – Look, all this is happening 10 minutes from your sofa – my husband observes.

Clouds glide across the moon
Cats prowl to their rhythm
Spring is a girl from the streets at night

Dirty old town
Dirty old town

I heard the siren from the docks
I saw the train that set the night on fire
I smelled the scent of spring in the smoky wind

from the song “Dirty Old Town” by The Pogues.

A yellow and red cup on a mesh table. People pass by, stop, smile. The guy next to us has a cat tattooed on his neck and is reading Cortázar.

Susi plays good old island ballads on her guitar: “Whiskey in the Jar,” “Emergency Telephone,” “Star of the County Down.” Ruth accentuates their magic on the flute. The road through “Athenry Fields” to Galway, the sky over Belfast, home. And I didn’t even know this Celtic-punk song “Guinness and Chips”.

I gaze at the green, white, and orange bunting above Shop Street, as crowded as ever, yet cozy at the same time. I’m glad to be part of this spontaneous, artistic community. Whenever I forget about my friend, this city, again. The buskers will remind me.

I approach the artists. Thank you for the honest, warm, and sweet as apple pie performance that moved me to the life today. The girls hand me their CD. Ruth hugs me. – Thank you, Galway! – they bow. Then pick up their backpacks and head off. Don’t forget to remember!