‘Russian Dolls’ by Seanín Hughes

Before breasts,
your poetry is peaches

& cream in cornflower dress
a doll-cask of sweet sap.

Then, the thrum of blood;
you are on the cusp,

your pupils black moons
bringing the tide.

You are a red creature
bound at the wrists by biology.

Your poetry is puce and vermilion
– a ripening lacuna lush

for the splitting of cells,
the giving of yourself

to a body
within a body.

From issue #6: spring/summer 2018

About the Author
Seanín Hughes is a poet, writer, and mother of four. A proud member of Women Aloud NI, she has been supported and published by various journals including Poethead, Dodging The Rain and The Blue Nib. Her work also features on Ireland’s inaugural Poetry Jukebox, situated at Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast.