‘Instinct’ by Edel Burke
When my mother told me
she had taken the stairs,
stared out from the bedroom window,
thought about throwing,
when one of us as a baby cried
for a whole year –
she couldn’t have known
that one day I would watch
a father lift his infant from
a play pen, take the stairs,
when he turned on the landing,
changed his grip,
I already had my arms raised.
From issue #6: spring/summer 2018
About the Author
Edel Burke has been published in Something About Home, New Writing on Migration and Belonging 2017, Crannóg 45, Rush Anthology 2017 and Boyne Berries 2017. She was winner of Dromineer Poetry Competition 2017 and highly commended in iYeats 2017 and Over the Edge 2014. She lives in Castlebar.
