‘Charlotte & Emily Brontë’s Irish Accents’ by Daragh Breen

A turf-cleaved ditch in County Down
falls from their tongues
and an arm of pewtered water is revealed,
an elongated ingot of flesh
squirming under a winter sun that sits
barely a few feet above
the horizon,
                                 and when it is
held aloft again
it will be above a Lancashire moor,
a host placed on an immigrant tongue,
and tasting of peat, starvation
and silence.

When Cork was still lit in 
black & white,
you and your sister
once walked home in tears
from the clouds and wind of
Wuthering Heights,
                                 and shared a nightmare
when some dead cat fell
at both of your feet
as you passed the street’s only hotel,
both of you screaming
and every window sealed shut
against the rain.

From issue #5: autumn/winter 2017

About the Author
Daragh Breen was born in Cork in 1970. His most recent poetry collection is What the Wolf Heard (Shearsman Books, 2016). An e-chapbook, The Lighthouses, is available to read online at Smithereens Press.