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