Published August 31, 2021
by Olivia Heggarty
(Carrickfergus, Antrim, Northern Ireland)
"In short, they were gambling on chance and chance is on nobody's side."
There is so much of me within this world -
A reddish hair is thrown weightlessly through
The bushes and wooden gates
And pinching air of our country.
Somewhere, a stranger whom I've been seated
In front of on the later bus has adopted
The shape of my perfume, and he
Walks it through the steel offices
Of his town. Old, aged stories from my mouth
Or about my mouth have been globetrotting,
As distant and as fast as they went when
We used to tie two cans to a long woollen string -
China! Timbuktu! And maybe even to the
Astronauts on the fat, blanched moon who could
Hear us echoing questions, little ghosts.
A fingernail is dissevered, bitten tight with
A nervous trademark, it too is somewhere;
Eyelashes, shopping lists, blood swiped
Off wounds in a hurry, your visage stuck
In a pedestrian's brain just like an
Imperfect cadence, a stone walked from
Bedroom carpet to the city's centre, new home...
We go nowhere, because we go everywhere.
Do you think these things decompose?
So, I know that on an evening not far
From now, when the sun will fall flat and wash
Your face in a splendid, purifying orange,
A rippled and long, fair hair shall
Land on the shoulder of your good big coat.
Biography
Olivia Heggarty is a young Northern Irish poet from Carrickfergus. Her poetry is inspired by musings on the importance of kindness and love, connections, loss, religion and childhood experiences. She is applying to study English Literature and Creative Writing at university, and has been inspired and encouraged by English teachers. Instagram: @livyheggarty
Previously published in Dublin Poetry Magazine:
This is the first poem ever published.
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