after Pearse Hutchinson
They’re against you because they’re young men
who don’t realize that they’re just like the old men.
They’re against you because they’re thieves
and thieves must sleep with one eye open.
They’re against you because they’re tired
of your mouth spilling rivers, wells, hawthorn springs.
And you can’t pin water to a page.
They’re against you because they’re afraid of who they are
without their robes. And unlike purple spurge, or a wolf,
you refuse to become extinct.
They fear that if your heart takes light
the hill might explode into flames.
They’re against you because they can’t rip out your tongue,
not easily, not like oil or quartz.
They question what you witness, not knowing
that you were raised by women who could transform
children into feathers and beak.
Why should a girl not speak to the horse moon?
Why should a young man not climb the fence
of the dead in his bare feet and purify
the air with sage and juniper?
Annemarie Ní Churreáin is the 2025 Arts Council/ University College Dublin Writer In Residence. She is the poetry editor at The Stinging Fly Magazine. Today’s poem is from her tthird poetry collection Hymn to All the Restless Girls published this month by Gallery Press.
They’re against you because they’re young men
who don’t realize that they’re just like the old men.
They’re against you because they’re thieves
and thieves must sleep with one eye open.
They’re against you because they’re tired
of your mouth spilling rivers, wells, hawthorn springs.
And you can’t pin water to a page.
They’re against you because they’re afraid of who they are
without their robes. And unlike purple spurge, or a wolf,
you refuse to become extinct.
They fear that if your heart takes light
the hill might explode into flames.
They’re against you because they can’t rip out your tongue,
not easily, not like oil or quartz.
They question what you witness, not knowing
that you were raised by women who could transform
children into feathers and beak.
Why should a girl not speak to the horse moon?
Why should a young man not climb the fence
of the dead in his bare feet and purify
the air with sage and juniper?
Annemarie Ní Churreáin is the 2025 Arts Council/ University College Dublin Writer In Residence. She is the poetry editor at The Stinging Fly Magazine. Today’s poem is from her tthird poetry collection Hymn to All the Restless Girls published this month by Gallery Press.
