Catherine Kay lives in the wild and beautiful Inishowen Peninsula in Donegal, Ireland. Her writing has been performed in the Waterside Theatre, Derry, Greencastle’s  Words by the Water Event and at Ten x 9 events. She was long listed for the Cúirt New Writing 2023 and highly commended in the Frances Browne Festival 2023.  Her poetry has been published in the Storms Journal Anthology IV. She has had work published in Caught Alight: An Anthology. 

Hawthorn

a true faerie tree  

bereft of protection

fat droplets of pain 

soak dank    primal soil

forsaken by magic

she howls on a hillside

white satin flutters

entreaties denied

Island 

Darting and tacking your shores
craggy defences staying firm and high.
On fine weather days
I make fresh attempts to dock
gaining small footholds on
your complicated landscape

Seas around you
rise and rough
as Autumn wanes.
Another season
not breaching your barriers
retreating to my mainland pain.

Through cold winter’s light I lose
your dark shadowed mass sporadic and dim.
Bold blue days and glimpses ripple.
Melancholy mists feather
the highs the lows of you.

Long Winter storms stubborn
flashes illuminate lost terrain.
Standing firm in my harbour
your sharp gales spit swirl at me.
Belief weak as the watery sun.

January’s length falters with hope
all of you
echoes
within my broken mind

Flashes of foam
dash dark cliffs
slim slithers of bright intermittent
twinkles gleam.
Scents of tender fertile soil
waft in on an April breeze.

Chancing another untethering
I launch myself from fragile sands.
Attempt to map your intricacies
slip this crack in your acceptance
tick tacking the causeway
to your soul.

Liaisons 

with last Autumn’s sunshine
we liaised often
in that flat by the park
all turmeric and bubble bath
in the bedroom
the scent of last month’s girlfriend
tainted the plush pile
in the living room
rough rental rug carpet-burnt my knees
in the bathroom
cheap French red in plastic flutes
balanced toppled to our vibrations
in the kitchen
lime green formica branded your
taut back in geometrical symmetry

by this Autumn’s storms
you liaise afresh
in her riverside studio
all marzipan and novelty
in the bedroom
prickly jute aromatic with deceit
in the living room
cool plate glass window
rubbing slim satined thighs
in the bathroom
sharp streams of shower head
dousing fresh lust
in the kitchen
china patterns distressed wood
staking its claim with dinner party politeness

back at our flat
I sit
caterpillar fat
waiting for metamorphosis to release me
carving scorched butterfly wings
into sad formica