It must have just stopped raining When we arrived. The road, licked for hours By the quiet slap of countless passing tyres, Gleamed blackly under the streetlamps Like wet liquorice. We sat for a moment Watching the mist descend Cobwebbing the edges of trees and hedges, The silver turning of a leaf in the damp air, And the tenting of the telegraph wires Carrying beads of water like fairy lights Backlit by the moon.
Feeling privileged to witness This heady scene, we realised (as car doors slammed and gravel crunched) That our reason for having driven here Was, for a moment, quite forgotten.
Published in Literary Yard, 22 August 2018 https://literaryyard.com/2018/08/22/pine-nuts-at-lunchtime-and-other-poems-by-denise-ohagan/
Black box
Yesterday I found A small lacquered box Which had sat on her dresser Since I remember. As blackly shiny now as then The painted bird’s eternal flight Towards scattered painted petals A constant, unwavering thing In a wavering world.
I know what’s in it And feel the thrill of familiarity When I lift the lid On a little piece of the past And hold again The Paris corner-café matchbox Delicately illustrated, and holding in turn, My miniature father cut out in sepia Younger, more vulnerable than I ever knew him, And underneath, a printed Roman Society library card With several other cards from other libraries, The stub of a borrower’s docket (she was ever a reader, my mother) A hair-pin, iron grey and bobbled at the ends Such as she used to use and are used no longer.
And at last, there she is herself Arresting and poised in black-and-white Pointy dark-rimmed sunglasses in hand, Her head turned back to look at me One fine eyebrow arched Her eyes holding mine Through the years.
Denise is an editor by trade. Born in Italy, she lived in the UK before emigrating to Australia. She holds an MA in Bibliography and Textual Criticism and works in publishing. Her poetry is published in various literary journals including New Reader Magazine, Other Terrain Journal, Pink Cover Zine, Literary Yard, Backstory, Scarlet Leaf Review, Poet’s Corner/InDaily and TheBlue Nib. She was commended in the Australian Catholic University Poetry Prize (2018), shortlisted for the Robert Graves Poetry Prize (2018), and received a special mention in the Pangolin Poetry Prize (2018). Website:https://blackquillpress.com/