Housekeeper

Jacqueline Thompson

I put eyes and tongues into every

dumb object I encounter, finding

smiles in fire-grates, laughter

tinkling in the servants’ bell.

I console the long silver spoon

as I polish her and all her daughters.

I stroke the cheeks of dusty clocks,

wipe sweat from leaky windows.

As I scrape up luncheon crumbs

he grumbles again: his women left him

out of spite. Tears mottle skin as dry

as moths entombed in wardrobes.

My cuckoo master laid his eggs

in umpteen nests: wife,

stepdaughter, chambermaid;

but never prune-fleshed me.

I used to hear his grunts then watch

them scuttle from his room. Now

I cannot shake the cat-in-the-wall

ache bricked-up in my chest.

I have stayed here too long.

I am as dried out and stuck

as rice abandoned in a pot.

I’ll never leave.

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.