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Delighted to have been shortlisted in the Aesthetica poetry competition, 2024 and published in their Creative Writing magazine, 2024/25.
The End of Writing about my Mother
(After Ada Limòn)
Enough of gypsophila and silver moons of honesty
lighting dark corners, enough of Chanel jackets
from Oxfam, enough of Guerlain, mentholated cigarettes,
enough of ice cream sandwiches, strawberries
in punnets, and pancakes with sugar or lemon or both,
enough of bedtime kisses or on my cuts and bruises,
make it better or grin and bear it,
enough of Irish history, Irish ancestry, being the wrong
kind of Irish, enough of trauma, enough of milking it,
tragedy queen or laughter rising above,
enough of reading my boyfriend’s letters,
are you on the pill, when will you get married,
enough of phone calls on Friday nights and surprise I am in,
enough I’m your friend, not just your mother,
enough I am lonely, of hugging too close, too long,
of what I should have said, of what I never said,
how I failed, how you failed me,
enough of grief, enough if only.
