June 2026

Posted in: October 2018 Edition

After Mass

Bernadette McCarthy


Steaming down from the gallery after Mass

like language off Babel

the cow-pat soft fall

as we narrate the dead,


the weather, and whether

Kilmurry will win in the end.

What matters is the grasp

of a wine-warm palm.


bernadette-mccarthy
Bernadette McCarthy

Bernadette McCarthy's poetry has been published in journals including Acumen, Agenda, Crannóg, The Honest Ulsterman, The London Magazine, Poetry Ireland Review, Shearsman, and Southword. Her chapbook Bog Arabic was published by Southword Editions (2018). 

More work by Bernadette McCarthy

After Mass [poetry] The Somnambulist [poetry]
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