Jess Mc Kinney

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Hide & Seek

My mother grooved through dark junk rooms,
while I watched from inside wardrobes,
around doors, hot breath cooling wet on my sleeve.
She hauled heavy canvases into the garden,
propped against the wall like a firing squad.
Each flinching at their turn. Exposing
thick layered acrylic to blinding sunlight
and the glint of an axe. I swear she felt me peeping,
like a confession box gossip, while they burned
new again beneath her hands. Like all the best
storytellers, she never spoke about her part
in the endings. I only ever caught one solid image
before it curled to smoke. It appears to me every
now and then, in that solemn crack of bright.
When I see it I know the dream is closing.
It’s best not to conjure her when I am alone.

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JESS MC KINNEY is a writer from Inishowen. Her debut pamphlet Weeding was published with Hazel Press. She is working towards her full collection and first novel, with support from the Arts Council.