Michael McCarthy
Our House
In the hallway: holy water font on the door jamb.
On the hall-stand your father’s hat.
Beside the stairs - linoleum covered with brass rods -
a picture (a woman in blue dress) with verse:
The Road of Friendship, and framed
a list of names: West Cork’s Heroic Dead.
In the kitchen: the fireplace between twin hobs.
On the range - Modern Mistress - a kettle and large potato pot.
From the chimney the smell of soot.
On the clevy: a come-lately radio, a tea caddy
with picture of sailors, sugar in a Fox’s Mint jar,
nine sets of rosary beads hanging from a hook.
On the wall the clock with key inside,
a lamp flickering before the Sacred Heart.
On a small table, a bucket of spring water.
Beside it the settle bed.
A dark ring on the ceiling over the Tilley lamp.
On the dresser, a jug of milk, crockery, including
large Wilton patterned plates, with glue marks
where a tinker repaired the cracks.
In the parlour: a round table,
six chairs stuffed with horsehair,
one broken. A chaise longue.
A chiffonier with purple breakfast cups and china set.
A silver teapot. Another, elephant-shaped
with a black woman riding on top.
A clock on the mantle-piece,
the time always at five o’clock.
On the wall your parents’ wedding.
An uncle and aunt on their way to China.
A cut-out picture of your brother aged ten.
Page(s) 15
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The