First light seeps slowly
along the undulating inlets
of south facing curtains.
A new dawn reflecting on the cliff face
of the mirrored wardrobe
rising from floor to ceiling.
April has broken its moorings
and we drift uncharted through
these lockdown days as best we can.
Anchoring behind the breakwater
we wish Godspeed to those
who ply their trade on perilous seas.
Today, on the Laureate’s birthday,
we re-read Clearances and try
our best to keep ‘allied and at bay’.
………..
Mary Shannon is from Belfast and is a member of Wilde Writers creative writing group. She won The Heather Newcombe Poetry Award 2019 and was Runner Up in The Bangor Literary Journal Aspects Festival 2019. Poems published: Poetry in Motion Community anthology compiled from entries to the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing: 2018/19 and 2019/20; Lagan Navigation Trust: 2018 and 2019. In 1999 she produced and contributed to an anthology of children’s poetry to raise funds for the N.I. Children’s Hospice. She enjoys art and crafts and her painting ‘Flowers For a Lady’ hangs in the Cancer Centre, Belfast City Hospital.