{ "componentChunkName": "component---src-templates-post-js", "path": "/literature/poetry/issue-2-script/", "result": {"data":{"post":{"id":"cG9zdDoyMTU1","excerpt":"

she sits in the hedge and types the air, looking busy,/
\nher seven-year-old wife gathers mud and sticks to brew soup,

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My workplace insists on acronyms, the barely words,
the secret codes, short and sharp. I write vague sentences

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and fill up slides with dry white text, I slip into my role
as if a script exists, as if I’ve been rehearsing

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like when I was a child, playing house, changing nothing,
naming the others—Mammy, Daddy, Baby.

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A four-year-old picks up a piece of cardboard importantly
and marches out to the field, saying I’m off to work,

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she sits in the hedge and types the air, looking busy,
her seven-year-old wife gathers mud and sticks to brew soup,

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as Baby (an unlikely six-year-old) crawls around in the dirt
breaking things. The game is set in motion.

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The children take it seriously, possessed by their roles.
If someone rebels, they are ousted, the walls of the game close,

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an untimely death is announced, a pretend funeral,
the rebel is left to kick stones listlessly across the yard

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as Daddy bursts from the hedge, rushes past, sipping from a rusty cup,
saying, god, I need my coffee and Mammy, back by the pile of sticks,

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stares up at the sky and says, I’d better take the clothes in.

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\n\n \n \"Bealtaine\n \n
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Alvy Carragher

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Alvy Carragher is an Irish poet based in Toronto. She has published two books of poetry and a children’s novel. Her poetry has appeared in The Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Guardian. Her second poetry book the men I keep under my bed was published in 2021, and her debut collection of poetry Falling in love with broken things was published in 2016, both by Salmon Poetry.

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\n\n \n \"Bealtaine\n \n
\n
\n

Alvy Carragher

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\n
\n
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Alvy Carragher is an Irish poet based in Toronto. She has published two books of poetry and a children’s novel. Her poetry has appeared in The Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Guardian. Her second poetry book the men I keep under my bed was published in 2021, and her debut collection of poetry Falling in love with broken things was published in 2016, both by Salmon Poetry.

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","title":"Script","date":"April 04, 2022","issue_number":{"issueNumber":"Issue 2"},"featuredImage":null},"previous":{"uri":"/literature/essays/extracts-from-homesickness/","title":"extracts from Homesickness"},"next":{"uri":"/uncategorized/issue-2-preorders-now-open/","title":"Issue 2 is here"}},"pageContext":{"id":"cG9zdDoyMTU1","previousPostId":"cG9zdDoyMTk2","nextPostId":"cG9zdDoyMDk4"}}, "staticQueryHashes": ["3240029854","848497233"]}