| ‘Soon have you home’ eating eggs in the garden A silent composition through the windowpane. ‘Soon have you home’ staring at me bleakly Holding in tears of uncertainty and regret. ‘Soon have you home’ making light of death The imprints visible beneath your skin. ‘Soon have you home’ changing on the doorstep A morbid striptease for the neighbours and me. ‘Soon have you home’ choking in your sleep On some left over anxiety from the week. ‘Soon have you home’, or most of you anyway Whatever hasn’t been taken by those who ask too much. |
| Lillie is not a poet, she is a PhD student at Queen’s University Belfast. Her work is inspired by a text she sent to her fiance, a hospital doctor, during a weekend of night shifts at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast at the height of the pandemic. |