Walking Out

Fiona Sze-Lorrain

When men take from me all the heat and light, I content myself

with echoes, sounds, and radio waves in every room up for sale inside

this body. What’s gone stretches each wall so terribly that when

I cough, mud bricks give up their secrets and poor decisions. One

of the corners keeps the song alive, another too wet for dust

or sprigs to rot gently. I manage. To obey an inner despot, I check

the doors, sweep the balcony, and reframe each picture with clouds

or perfect fruits as focus. For inspiration, I look out the windows.

I am inside each window, the window moves in me. Anything you see

from the outside – the garden, the hare, disposable bin, and wayfaring

tree – teaches you to live with used spaces. Touch pain by its rim:

under your bed, in the cellar. I am still here because of my dilemma.

In this scenario, a glass of water and a pill are two separate issues.

Look at you. The solitude. Even the cactus is softening each kill.

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.