‘Central Strip’ by Kate Dempsey

There is a special place in heaven for the shaven heads of boys;
the nap and pile as thick as mother’s velvet curtains,

That movement, palm-pressed, leaves
a central strip, scant acknowledged.

Their hair springs back like iron filings to a magnet,
the paleness of soft nape.

In summer, bodies, not a pick on them, yell into the canal,
sun-caught drops shaken like skinny mutts

They know their power grows,
what they can get, what they can do.

So smile now, brazen as an auntie,
reach out the hand.

From issue #4: spring/summer 2017

About the Author
Kate Dempsey is widely published in Ireland and the UK. Prizes include The Plough Prize, an Arts Council grant, and a Hennessy New Irish Writing Award shortlisting. Her debut collection, The Space Between, was published by Doire Press in 2016, from which a poem was highly commended in the Forward Prize.