En route from New York to Albany
a majestic stag pranced along the wire
fence. Feeling his intent, I cried
a warning. Slammed brakes, burnt
rubber and we were safe. Petrified and
noble he slid into the next lane and
was instantly decapitated by an oncoming
car. His antler wreathed head flew into the
air, incongruous in its separation from his body.
I cried all the way to Albany - you did not speak.
Your silence made my sobs grotesque. Were we
spared for a later ordeal, a living trial, a death rattle?
Marian is an Irish writer based on the west coast of Ireland. She has, in the past, been a teacher at senior level, worked professionally in education and management for an Aids Organisation, and reviewed fiction and non-fiction for the Sunday Business Post, Ireland. She attended the Seamus Heaney Centre summer school at Queens University Belfast in 2013. She has been published or is forthcoming at Prelude (US), The Louisville Review (US), Poetry Salzburg Review (Austria), Crannog (IRL), Ofi Press (Mexico), Frogmore Papers (UK), Cyphers( IRL), Apalachee Review (US), Foliate Oak Literary Magazine (US,) New Contrast (Cape Town), Quiddity (US), Right Hand Pointing (US), Grey Sparrow Journal (US), Off The Coast (US), The Galway Review (IRL), The Liner (US), Into The Void (IRL), Roanoke Literary Journal (US), The Rockhurst Review (US), Banshee Literature (IRL), The Catamaran Literary Reader (US), The Worcester Review (US), The Stonecoast review (US), The Main St Rag, (US), Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal, (US), Poetry in The Park, Athlone. The Poetry collective, Clare Champion, The Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review, (US, Spring & Summer 2018), The Cape Rock: Poetry (US), The Curlew (UK), The Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review, (US, Fall 2018), Crossways Feb' 2019, The Qutub Minar Review ( Intl,' 2019 ) Southbank Poetry London (2019) and others. She was featured poet on Poethead - Contemporary Irish women poets, January 9th - 16th 2018. She was short listed for the 2017 Dermot Healy International prize for poetry. She was placed on the long list for the 2019 Fish Poetry Prize. Her book, The Heart Uncut is to be published by Words On The Street publishers, Galway in Spring 2020. Her website is at www.mariankilcoyne.com
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