Splint

My brother used to enfold himself in the oak

with Beano magazines, a can of Coke.

Hidden in leaves like the Toxic Waste sweets

he sucked and spat out in wads of kitchen roll.

Lately he only eats chicken wings, turkey breasts,

gulps raw eggs and protein shakes.

Every day he wraps a resistance band

around his stomach, ties himself to the bole and sprints.

I want to tell him that I too have made wood

of my body, carved it into a coat rack under jackets

of men I thought I loved, a dumb quiet stick.

He is trying to protect the small boy who lived

before the refused engagement ring and unfinished lease.

He can’t hear my small voice calling out for him.

Bluebeard

She doesn’t mean to look at his phone

but he’s always whispering into it like a Ouija board,

leaves it unlocked on her pillow.

As if he wants her to see the bare chests

of so many ex-girlfriends, their tummies sucked in,

ribs like fingers clawing out of his screen.

She wants to drag them from his group chats,

his devil emojis. How can she ever admit to finding this?

He returns, sparks pixels of tobacco

and coils around her waist, holds her so tightly,

as if trying to shrink her, bury her

in his obituaries of eyes, lips, cleavage.

____________

Molly Twomey has won the Padraic Colum Poetry Prize (2019), the Waterford Poetry Prize

(2020), the Eavan Boland Mentorship Award (2021) and was chosen for Poetry Ireland’s

Introductions Series (2021). Recently awarded an Arts Council Literature Bursary, her debut

collection came out in May 2022 with The Gallery Press.