In Attic Dust

( Dedicated to  S i n e a' d  Mc C o o l e )

In high laced shoes and petticoats     

Cherub lips ablaze of candy

Jacks were gripped

Ropes were skipped

To youthful songs which then were handy.   

As this turn:

Yet, instilled somewhere within

Her form, as crowned of hair in curls,

Discordant matters hushed away,

Brushed away by other girls,

She counted, to a twirl:

Timeless scorn of danger changes:

Tablecloth dresses,
Shaven short tresses,
Effigies, portraitures, daughters as thralls...

Letters in sorrowful pages recall
Our sisters, wives, mothers within East Wing walls.

Time and times of doing time estrange:

Yearning myths
Of mists and  kisses,

Phantom bliss embraced in veils
Of burning words in ladies' journals,

 

 

Journals from the jails.

Guns & Chiffon, Women Revolutionaries and Kilmainham Gaol
S i n e a'd  Mc C o o l e, Government Publications Sale Office
Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2