dangerous weather
the garden exhales puffballs
rupture grasses pollinate in the gilded breeze
poppies pump their milky sap capsules
shake themselves out the air heavy
with wind-borne seed your blown kisses
remembered drift of your lips waft of your hand
my open mouth dandelion clocks
set themselves off my feet
their bare calligraphy etched by the stones
this flinty path your long absence honeybee
dips in every flower a black cat crosses the lawn
which is the cat? which the shadow? cover
cover my mouth
(first published in Speaking for Scéine (ed John W. Sexton)
Eileen Sheehan is from Killarney, Co Kerry. Her collections are Song of the Midnight Fox and Down the Sunlit Hall (Doghouse Books). Anthology publications include The Watchful Heart: A New Generation of Irish Poets (ed Joan McBreen/Salmon Poetry) and TEXT: A Transition Year English Reader (ed Niall MacMonagle/ Celtic Press). She tours with spiritual singer Noirín Ní Riain and actor Cora Fenton with a show entitled Women’s Voices Women’s Stories. She has worked as Poet in Residence with Limerick Co Council Arts Office and is on the organizing committee for Éigse Michael Hartnett Literary & Arts Festival. Her 3rd collection, The Narrow Place of Souls, is forthcoming.
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