First Preference
DEAR CONSTITUENTS: crime is rising, watch out,
keep one eye open. Life’s a white
wall under pink spray-paint. I was devout
and classmates laughed when I spun on holy light;
still, I prayed. And like you, I dream in navy-blues,
greens, of leopard-print nights under the club’s
chandelier - my friends, I’ll brave abuse
online to keep erect your bricks and shrubs,
thrashed by grasping hands in the dark;
I’ll let no halting site devalue good
homes for good people; no dog’s bark,
horse’s hoof, strange face in this neighbourhood.
Clíodhna Bhreatnach is from Waterford. Recently she was shortlisted for the Fish Anthology Lockdown Poetry Prize and her poems have appeared in Channel Magazine and Tír na nÓg Literary Magazine as part of the Circuit 2020 Arts Festival. She is on Twitter at @undersea_org.
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