Gill Garrett

In a previous existence Gill Garrett wrote medical textbooks. More recently she has won local and national awards for her poetry, short stories and creative non-fiction, all of which often draw on her previous professional experience. She has been invited to read her work at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, performs with the Cheltenham Poetry Festival Players and blogs at http://www.gillgarrett.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

The Irish Girls 1968

Those Irish girls know how to live!

 

In Birmingham beds

they dream of Donegal –

they’ve promised to return

but never will,

larking with local lads

so unlike their brothers

back on the farms.

 

Writing home each week

they’ll not mention missing Mass

nor dancing till dawn

in the Unicorn bar,

clambering back

through the bathroom casements

friends have left ajar.

 

Capped and starched,

they chide the inebriate,

scold a slow recovery –

but gently soothe

the querulous old,

lay white flowers

on a child’s stilled breast,

open the window

to let a freed soul fly.

 

Those Irish girls know how to die.

 

© 2018 Gill Garrett