Complicit

Amanda Bell

When my stolen gun

was unearthed,

tarp-wrapped,

my hands recalled

the satin of its patinated

stock, the greasy feel

of the canvas bag

I used to carry shells;

soft drift of down

from felled wild fowl,

which rolled up into rags

at my cold touch.

I wonder, in the weft of prints,

what links my hands

to shallow graves –

but this is titillating guilt,

which doesn’t implicate

my green-washed life

in drowned Pacific islands,

with each switch I flick,

each spark of my ignition.

Poetry Ireland Review Issue 120:

Edited by Vona Groarke

Vona Groarke's final issue as editor is packed with new poems from leading contemporary poets, including Simon Armitage, Sinéad Morrissey, Colette Bryce, Paul Muldoon, Sean O'Brien and Caitríona O'Reilly. Books reviewed include new work from Derek Mahon, Bernard O'Donoghue, Rita Ann Higgins, Martina Evans, Denise Riley and the 2016 Forward Prize winner Vahni Capildeo. The centrepiece of the issue is an interview with Paul Muldoon in which the Armagh maestro shares his thoughts on subjects as diverse as public surveillance, the economic down-turn, and the exclamation mark. The cover image is by photographer Justyna Kielbowicz, and the issue also contains award-winning artwork from Sven Sandberg, Aoife Dunne, Jane Rainey, and Michelle Hall. Instead of an editorial, Vona herself answers the questionnaire she put to the contributors of Poetry Ireland Review Issue 118: The Rising Generation.