The Poetry Arm
Today was all left-handed.
I’ve slapped it on the wrist,
wrapped what it’s written, hidden
in a file, locked behind a password:
a little bomb of bitterness
I couldn’t post online.
My left hand’s the clumsy one
blundering on the truth,
galumphing after images
through fences I keep closed.
I’ve shut my left hand up;
my right hand keeps my counsel
on that place across the road,
the house I married into.
Kathleen McPhilemy was born and grew up in Belfast but has lived most of her adult life in Great Britain. She has published three collections of poetry, the most recent being The Lion in the Forest (Katabasis, 2004).Her work has appeared in a wide range of print and online magazines, as well as anthologies. She has a blog, Poetry Owl – reviews and reflectionhttps://kmcpoetry.blog/ and she currently runs a monthly Zoom Open Mic event in Oxford.