Nuala Ní Chonchúir
Spring 2008
Death, Water and Woman
L'Inconnue was not
plucked from the river
by la Brigade Fluviale,
like a freshwater trout.
She was not propped
on a slab in the morgue's
window to be peered over
by hungry Parisians.
She did not pick woman's
preferred mode of suicide –
a languid drowning;
men, they say, prefer the rope.
No, her Junoesque vigour
and serene smile give her away:
she was quite well when
her death-mask was shaped.
Walking Saint-Germain
On wide stalls in
the Marché Biologique,
flayed rabbits cuddle
tight, flank-to-flank;
plump pigeons coo quietly
to comfort shiny squid,
tiny as unborn babies.
On the boulevard,
under l'Atelier's awning,
two strait-laced boys
drink each other in,
sink cocktails to love
and smoke like novices;
a squat Boxer winks
at me from a doorway.
Mannequin Envy
It's not the pert plum breasts
or the bloodless complexion
It's not the gamine gait
or the fuck-me-please eyes
It's the luxurious laziness
of her shop-window leisure,
the loitering with no intent.
Nuala Ní Chonchúir lives in County Galway, Ireland. Her bilingual poetry collection Tatto:Tatú (Arlen House, 2007) is shortlisted for the 2008 Strong Award. Her two short fiction collections The Wind Across the Grass and To the World of Men, Welcome, were also published by Arlen House. She is fiction editor for Southword magazine for 2008; she will also judge this year's Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize.
Nuala has won many short fiction prizes including the Cúirt New Writing Prize, RTÉ's Francis MacManus Award, the inaugural Jonathan Swift Award and the Cecil Day Lewis Award. Website: www.nualanichonchuir.com |
 |
