On Inishmore by Barbara E. Hunt

November 23, 2023
Poem title: On Inishmore Poet name: Barbara E. Hunt Poem: Consider this: to be careening down rain-slick roads an earful of Thomas/ tattle warm enough to ward off squalling. And doesn’t he blather on, how with only thirty sheep, they barter wool for the island; boat in sleek stone for those posh homes since thatch and rubble fell from favour although that three by ten mile swath is still bisected by seven thousand miles of dry-stacked runs. Where spuds are swapped for turf from offshore with trees too sparse for firewood. Where eight hundred Araners warehouse two hundred goats – somewhere – just so the kids can’t skip out on supplying goods for famous curd. Life used to be dead simple. No winter to speak of November to April, begrudging a hardy frost. These days bread and butter’s earned by carting the curious past potato plots and lephrechaun houses and gravestones silent as the Seven Churches’ yard. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Barbara E. Hunt Barbara E. Hunt has publications across North America, the U.K., Europe and Australia to her credit; current writings (free) on WATTPAD and kudos for Devotions (a colouring/poetry book, 2017), winning the Calgary Poetry Contest (2019) and inclusion in Worth More Standing (poetry anthology about trees, Caitlin Press, 2022). She has a forthcoming climate-change collection due later in the year titled Rowing Across the North Atlantic.