Ailbhe Darcy

Gone Fishing

War. And one fierce girl
will not take the bait.
She swims off to stop it,  

leaves me dangling, thumb-sucking,
plucking patterns from tea leaves,
scanning advice slips from bank machines,
clutching at strings.  

I’d swing
from the cat’s cradle of clouds
crossing borderless skies
if I believed it would catch
and knit me
into any design;
I’d loop-the-loop,
crossing, recrossing truths.

But it all comes loose. Nets become sieves,
knots become loops.
I feel that old slack
no certainty to pull taut
make sing, draw back
that girl-fish
or tightrope out and join her
stitched fast to a bridge
over the Tigris.

A student from Dublin, Ailbhe has been widely published. Her work has also won awards at the Gerard Manley Hopkins and William Allingham summer schools.