Before The Birds Have  Fled     I knew a woman once whose belly swelled. She joked she was expecting. I’m blown up tight as a drum, she said. Her GP ordered tests.   Without complaint she went, tight-lipped on shabby Green Line buses. She told us she was coping fine. She was hoping for the best.   All the listless days of a fierce July she rested in a chair by the window. Bluebottles buzzed through the breathless nets, hovered like dark jewels above her hair.   Then late in September she took to her bed. She was whiter … Continue reading Abigail Elizabeth Ottley

Ode to the Past   Now that you’ve moved further afield, I miss your quirky ways. I can’t say I long for you, but certainly your efforts causing mixed up measures of havoc and joy in The Present won’t be forgotten. Detangled from your ivy now, the horizon is clear and light with hindsight laughing at your wrong track premonitions. Impossible to see then, how the current pulls on the river carrying our lives along to this precise moment at the desk looking out on the giant ash swirling in south westerlies.   Past, you are something between ever changing … Continue reading Aoife Reilly

If Only My Mother   If only my mother had been a pimp, Raised me with no self-respect, I could have been a reality star With extensions and still upright breasts.   If only my mother had taught me my worth Was tied to Gucci and Prada I could have inspired a million young girls To fill their head with nada.   If only my mother had explained success- That it starts and ends with Twitter. A million followers I could have had, Applauding my useless titter.   If only my mother had not Introduced me to Dickens and Poe … Continue reading K.T. Slattery