Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume One November-December 2024
Poltergeist, poems by Geraldine Mills.
Poltergeist
Being children, what we did was
sleep through
the noise of the baskets being dragged
from under
the still warm kitchen range
as we did for
the clatter against the walls
of chairs upended, flung,
socks and underwear
scattered across the red and black lino,
our mother
sitting up in bed, shaking.
Next morning at the breakfast table
her hand shook
as she cupped it around a Gold Flake,
tea untouched.
Then she ordered us to marry each sock
to its mate
refold our knickers, vests, slips,
return
the tidied baskets to their own place
chairs restored,
a catkin of ash trembling onto her toast.
Jaundiced
His heart is in the wrong place
just above the liver
where it pumps in bile not blood.
Every little hurt he rubs
the gall of memory into
until he grows fat on it.
He sits there in the corner
like an old grandmother
waiting for someone, anyone
to come and feed him
little spoonfuls of umbrage
tiny sips of pique
that he can spit out
dribble down his chin
the white of his eyes turning yellow.
© Geraldine Mills
Geraldine Mills is a poet and fiction writer. She has published five collections of poetry, three of short stories and two children’s novels. She is an experienced facilitator and is a member of Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools’ Scheme. Her most recent publication is When the Light: New and Selected Poems (Arlen House, 2023).