An Avenue Cuts

Michael G Casey

An avenue cuts between headstones

continues straight to door, spire, cross.

Talk of angels turns to mystery

and potential as the small white coffin,

borne in by parents, rests on the altar table

before the tabernacle, her soft toys

for company on her first and last journey.

Her songs and nursery rhymes are played –

Mary Mary Quite Contrary, Twinkle Twinkle

Little Star How I Wonder What You Are ...

Time’s arrow stopped suddenly in flight;

and then a curtain is silently drawn. Parents

hesitate, turn to leave, empty-handed, alone.

Her life ended when snowdrops came.

Poetry Ireland Review Issue 124:

Edited by Eavan Boland

Poetry Ireland Review 124 contains new poems from Paula Meehan, Ciarán O'Rourke, Lizzy Nichols, Mark Ward, Gabriel Rosenstock, Özgecan Kesici, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, and many other compelling voices. Also included is Eilean Ni Chuilleanáin's remembrance of her Cork childhood, excerpted from The Vibrant House: Irish Writing and Domestic Space, a book of essays reviewed in issue 124 by Caitríona O'Reilly. Other books considered in this issue include collections from Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Mark Granier, Tara Bergin, The Cambridge Companion to Irish Poets, and the Collected Poems of the late Dennis O'Driscoll, and there's also a short interview with Thomas Kinsella along with an essay on Kinsella as poet and civil servant. Another Kinsella is this issue’s Featured Poet, Alice Kinsella, and all artwork for the issue is supplied by artists associated with the Olivier Cornet Gallery on Great Denmark Street, around the corner from Poetry Ireland.

Available now to purchase online or in all good bookstores.