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Mi na Marbh, month of the dead is right.
November, remember the no in November
as you rake leaves and think… yes,
there’s a bag of daffodil bulbs in the shed.
Nothing for it but the trowel and spike,
clay on your hands, knee patches of mud,
bulbs settled in soil, made cosy with small
heaps of earth and there-there pats.
You spend an hour in the garden.
Labouring away, giving it your all.
Head down, arse up in the air
and telling November to kiss it.
Dr Rachael Hegarty has published three collections, Flight Paths Over Finglas (Salmon, 2017), which won the Shine Strong Award in 2018; May Day 1974 (Salmon, 2019); and Dancing with Memory (Salmon, 2021). A new collection, Wild Flowers Made Me, is due in 2023
November, remember the no in November
as you rake leaves and think… yes,
there’s a bag of daffodil bulbs in the shed.
Nothing for it but the trowel and spike,
clay on your hands, knee patches of mud,
bulbs settled in soil, made cosy with small
heaps of earth and there-there pats.
You spend an hour in the garden.
Labouring away, giving it your all.
Head down, arse up in the air
and telling November to kiss it.
Dr Rachael Hegarty has published three collections, Flight Paths Over Finglas (Salmon, 2017), which won the Shine Strong Award in 2018; May Day 1974 (Salmon, 2019); and Dancing with Memory (Salmon, 2021). A new collection, Wild Flowers Made Me, is due in 2023
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