The Shoes He Makes for Me
He starts with my still-warm hymen,eases his fingernails under the membrane,peels it like you peel protest from a tongue;lays the crescent-shaped pink flesh flaton the table, slowly whitens itwith pinch by grainy pinch of saltto absorb water from the words— vowels shrivel, consonants choke.He pegs out the skin to dry on the front lawn;scrapes the surface with a blade, shaves offany morphemes that linger — 'un' especially.Neighbours watch but none see; Godbless the work there, Timmy!The hide is ready on day twenty-eight,the day he and I, unusually, played tag.I wonder about the mud; a mysteryuntil I see him measure my leggy strides,regular as stitches through the orchard's path.Unwilling to appear ungrateful, Iam unforthcoming when I wear the red shoes;the left a round-toed, flat lace-up,the right a killer heel.
Feature Date
- February 23, 2020
Series
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
Copyright © 2019 by Breda Spaight
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Breda Spaight lives in Co. Limerick, Ireland. She was among the poets accepted to the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series, and the Introductions Reading at the Cork International Poetry Festival. Her work has appeared in Southword, Poetry Ireland Review, Ambit, Aesthetica, and The North (Irish issue). She was a featured poet in The Stinging Fly and The Interpreter’s House. She has won the Boyle Arts Festival Poetry Prize, and the Doolin Poetry Prize 2020. She was among the poets in the Best New British and Irish Poets 2018 Eyewear anthology.
Cork
Ireland
Munster Literature Centre
The Untimely Death of My Mother’s Hens is the fifth poetry chapbook in the New Irish Voices series from Southword Editions.
"These are brutally vivid memories. There’s death and there’s blood: menstrual, childbirth, scabs from shaving cuts; ‘cherry-red vowels’ and ‘alphabet clots’ (in ‘My Father Tells Me He Loves Me’)."
—Helena Nelson, Sphinx
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
