It’s
It’s the way the garden clouds over of a sudden,
an abrupt wind slaps at your legs,
rattles the petals off the roses.
It’s drawers lying open in the kitchen,
exposing a rabble of lost things,
hard angles ready for bruises.
It’s a smell of gas with no source
in present time – your hob’s electric,
the swelling gasometers long dismantled.
It’s the hush after switching off the landing light,
when the staircase takes a breath and holds it,
and your eyes open wide on the dark.
Poetry Ireland Review Issue 119:
Poetry Ireland Review Issue 119 includes new poems by 48 poets including Frank Ormsby, John Kinsella, Rachel Coventry, Aifric Mac Aodha, Gerald Dawe, Alice Miller and Claire Potter. Also included are translations by Richard Begbie and Kirsten Lodge, an essay on Bishop, Lowell, Heaney and Grennan by David McLoghlin, and reviews of Paul Muldoon, Paul Durcan, Sarah Clancy, Medbh McGuckian, Kate Tempest, George the Poet, and many more. The issue also features photography by Hugh O'Conor, Dominic Turner, Sheila McSweeney, Fergus Bourke and John Minihan.