How to Escape and Other Theories
For Mary
My sister sings me to sleep
from half a world beyond,
and I sink into the pool of night
with an earful of song.
Outside, this foreign city closes
and I travel to Dundalk –
the Green Church, Castletown Road –
to a time in the past.
This is how close everything is,
the street, the buildings taking on
their old known shapes
and I, my soft-faced skin.
My past is always beside me,
as in the Block Theory of Time,
and my future not a step away:
all my selves are the same.
I’m already gone from this place.
Somewhere my bones turn yellow
or are burned and ground to dust
for the gluttonous stars to swallow.
Frank Dullaghan is an Irish writer who, at the time of his submission, is locked down in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has four collections published by Cinnamon Press, most recently Lifting the Latch (2018). His work features widely in international journals, including in Cyphers, London Magazine, Magma, Nimrod, Poetry Review and Rattle. @frankdullaghan