New Poetry by Jim Conwell

Especially the Girls

My cousins had freckles, especially the girls.
Speckled and emphasising how white
their skin was. Delicate white.
Translucent.
Washed by soft bog-rain and shy
of the sun or any other brash noise.

I have seen kids who were closer
to wild deer than anything else.
Shy but curious.
So easily startled.
And Patricia in the bog
with the hair on her head
like a wild spring.
Where have they gone,
with their shoeless feet?


- © Jim Conwell 2020

Jim Conwell’s parents were economic migrants from the rural west of Ireland and he was born, and has lived most of this life, in various parts of London. He currently has had poems published in various magazines including Pangolin Review, Poetry and Audience, Poetry Cornwall, Poetry Pacific, Pushing Out the Boat and Riggwelter Press, He has had two poems shortlisted in the Bridport Poetry Prize. He is married to Annemarie van der Meer and they have eight grandchildren.