How To Swallow Whole The Sky

After Muriel Rukeyser

Say it, say it. The world is made
Of stories, not atoms.
Little fictions, little truths,
The yarn we used to weave
Our history in reds and blues.

Let me call you by your name,
For once, we were sisters.
We were sisters not of blood,
But of petals pressed into palms
And swirled with rainwater
To make perfume sold at a price.

You were the brave one; young thing
Dangling from the wire
As the chinooks took to flight.
You watched, wondered
How to swallow whole the sky.

Seanín Hughes is an emerging poet from County Tyrone who will shortly commence study of BA Hons English with Ulster University as a mature student.

Seanín was first published on Poethead in July 2017 and was selected for the Crescent Arts Centre’s Poetry Jukebox, launched in October 2017. She has work published or forthcoming both online and in print from various journals, including Banshee: A Literary Journal, The Stinging Fly, A New Ulster, Abridged and NI Community Arts Partnership’s Poetry In Motion anthology.

Seanín is a shortlistee for the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing, 2018, and recipient of the Poetry Ireland Acess Bursary for Cúirt International Literature Festival, 2018.

To read more of Seanín, click here.