| I tried not to sneeze, I held my nose with my blue, nitrile gloved hand and my face grew pink and patchy purple, my over-long fringe matted against my damp forehead as salty droplets hung in the air and stung my already sore, streaming eyes, the heat generated under my mask cocooned me in an oven-like state.The violence of the sneeze almost brought the house down, it ripped the elastic from my left ear, almost Van Goughing me and then the coughing started two meters became ten as fellow diners stared at their lasagnes, fearful of a side of Covid. I was alone with my symtoms, Vertigo kicked in then, The waitress asked for my contact details, |
| Susan Kelly is from Westport, Co Mayo. Her work has appeared in Cyphers, Poetry Ireland Review, The Stony Thursday Book, Crannóg, Revival, Abridged, The London Magazine, Boyne Berries, The Weary Blues, Burning Bush 2, wordlegs.com and was short-listed for the Writing Spirit Award 2010. She was a featured reader at Over the Edge in Galway 2011, shortlisted for the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year 2013 and longlisted for the 2014 WOW award. Featured poet on Poethead and commended for Fool for Poetry Nov 2019. |