Two Poems by Dairena Ní Chinnéide

Photography by Dairena Ní Chinnéide

Departure

Like shedding skin
fragments are packed up
shards of sanctuary disappear
the cottage dishes are washed
bags negotiate themselves
in a form of farewell.

I sit in this artists retreat
observing beauty peeking out of a Lidil’s bag
almost completed paintings
of a desire
as transitory as the brushstroke
the intentional randomness
of a splattered and empty easel.

Colours echo more than sound
or the potential of memory
from the artistry within us
swallowed gulps of gaiety
a whole moon on a shoulder
the palette of parting
still wet in cracks of stone.

Flying the Coop

flown coop,
a wall
between emptiness.

space expands
in this narrow
house

I do not inhabit,
just resting,
conjuring my nest.

aloneness
blares,
digitally enhanced,

oneness
breathes personality,
comet risen;

I blossom
by dim light
in my bed,

loverless,
ecstatically naked,
like water.

purified silence
delves in, I live alone,
alive.