Creosote

On my knees, like Christians, I’m praying

I’ll get a break today. There’s no lack

of chairs, tables, cabinets in this factory, churned out

for me to stain in the colour Manning shouts at me.

Every bit of me, my hair, body, clothes,

shoes, pillows, bedsheets are coloured

mahogany, walnut, cherry. Rivkeh knows

if I’ve been painting with maple or ebony,

says they all smell different. It doesn’t matter

what she cooks for dinner, it all tastes

of turpentine and she no longer touches me

the way she did before, just jabs at the browns

asking where each one came from.

Tomorrow, I’ll sweat again until the finish.

The Zoo, Cork, 1881

At Mass, we heard of aliens

who travelled here by steamboat.

People said they all had beards,

darkened faces and black clothes;

some complained they didn’t pray to our Lady.

We were curious,

Took to Albert Road to see.

We joined the crowds

to get a glimpse, called out

when we saw one pass.

They looked up at us, nodded,

went on their way. A little one

stuck out his tongue

and all the crowd laughed

stuck their tongues out too

until his father pulled him back.

He smiled, apologetically,

but his eyes looked sorrier

than any beast I’d ever seen

and I knew these streets

by the railroad and markets

held people just like me

and when Father Kerr arrived

he shooed us off like animals.

Two Sisters

Sarah sits behind the counter,

as usual, sold out of spuds;

knows if she sells them cheaper

they’ll also buy their bread, milk, butter

and she knows the men come in to stare

at her bare neck when she turns

to get their ale so, she’s learned to say

“a weight of tatties” in her Russian accent

and they laugh, flash a guilty glance,

and tell her to keep the change.

Her sister sits beside the fire,

stitching pieces of satin together

to make dresses for the wives

of men that Sarah sends to her.

Simon Lewis is from Dublin and has been living in Carlow for the last ten years, where he works as a primary school principal. He is a member of the Carlow Writers’ Cooperative, a local writing group, and has been published in a number of magazines, such as Boyne Berries, Silver Apples and Irish Literary Review.

He was shortlisted for the 2014 Listowel Poetry Collection prize and is currently working on his first collection of poems, based on immigration and survival.