A poem by Róisín Keane

Róisín Keane is a published poet and short story writer based in Dublin. Her poetry has previously been translated into Spanish and she has been involved in intercultural art projects such as collaborative painting and poetry.

 

A poem by Róisín Keane

 

Mother

Mother,

Not every woman’s got a mother’s heart to spare

beneath her suckling breast she’s got a wide-eyed infant’s face

adjusting to this strange place of everyday toils,

broken toys and dirty playgrounds she has never left,

but dreams persist and change

insists on cracking the shell and the photo frame

of family unreadily and unsteadily formed,

if ever it was going to be ready for she,

for me,

for Mother,

you have many forms,

many lives,

many mothers.