Lunchbreak
She slips away from fire and steel,
each dip of the paddle
a balm for tension at the surface.
She steers a course beyond
the rocks, slow in the heavy water
that still smarts with April’s chill
and with the poise of someone
at ease with the currents, she
lowers the paddle and her body
on to the board to face the sky.
I feel the cool shock in the small
of my back; I could be that woman.
Instead, I turn from her, hang
the lanyard round my neck,
bin the dregs of my coffee cup.
Marguerite Doyle’s credits include Reliquiae Journal, Vallum, CAROUSEL, The Ogham Stone, and The New Welsh Reader. Her work appears in the 2021 Ireland Chair of Poetry Commemorative Anthology, Hold Open the Door. In 2021 Marguerite’s entry to Anthology’s Poetry Award was shortlisted and highly commended.