The shame of our island is that we killed the wolf. Not just the last but the two before that. I knew a man who met a man who was the cousin removed of the great-grandson of the man who killed the third-last wolf on the island. Slit it he did, to see the steaming […]
Connemara Rocks You held me with champagne in a Galway crystal glass. The light fizzed through its facets, and danced a sparkling ring. ‘No dawter of mine’ll be on time, make him wait’ you said. Your brother; our driver, obeyed. We parked at the church, set into the mouth of a bad turn. The blessed […]
I. The Other Side of Things. from the sequence Sky Gladiatorials Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown made the first non-stop aerial crossing of the Atlantic, Newfoundland to Ireland, 1919.Previous to that, they both flew for Britain in World War I. Alcock ‘was the first man to bomb Istanbul’; then, with plane trouble, […]
The Blue Hare Stepping off the path, a silver car rushes by. I never saw it coming, yet I felt the ground give way. I knelt down within myself. The hare that lives in my mind, snug in her thick coat and safe in her wide-open eyes, breaks free and runs across me. She purrs, […]
Red He said my chi was unbalanced Suggested I wear a red linen shawl Around my waist – to keep my liver warm Yoda of the herb world Laughed at my expression Admitted it sounded odd But red always means heat, he explained So I wore it, next to my kidneys Like the scarlet woman […]
