Hot Tub Hurricane

Alice Kinsella
The storm is coming 
              she’s on 
her way 
              from the South West and
 
the leaves are warning
              us with their frantic desire to 
 
lower into 
               the deep heat
                             of the foaming 
              Jacuzzi
on the deck outside the (4 star) hotel 
luxury won’t wait but I’m 
 
             staring at the sky 
at the leaves
               that are quivering
 
that are desperate to escape 
               the branches on their own terms
before the chaotic battering comes like 
 
                             the Italian beside me all
             muscles and romance
 
Ophelia they’re calling her
 
O
               Oh 
                            Ohh
I’m feelin’ ya 
 
but I cannot stop
               looking at the leaves 
                              as they’re falling 
                                            onto my shoulders
                                                         onto the heat 
 
 
of my skin which is steaming 
to join the mist that is fleeing
                            the storm
                                          into the hot tub
whipped into the storm of the chlorine
 
let’s go to the room where there’s champagne 
and warmth 
                               and
                                              and 
 
I cannot stop watching
              the leaves 
Page 91, Poetry Ireland Review Issue 124
Issue 124

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.