Summer Buzz 1960

It’s that filthy meat he gets from the butcher,
for his greyhounds, that draws them in.
She arms herself with the metal pipe of the Electrolux
with the precision of a marksman
loops the air in pursuit,
it dodges, swirling figures of eight
around the windowpane,
no match for Mammy.

Exhausted, it’s sucked in.
She carries the bag to the bottom of the garden
empties the dusty creature
over the wall into Neary’s field.

She tells about the diphtheria outbreak
in Ballyhaunis 1920
that took her two baby brothers.
She remembers their tiny coffins
the plaintive wailing of the old women.

He’ll have us all poisoned yet.
She scans for another flash of metallic blue,
Relieved, opens the window to let the fresh air in.

Anne Irwin is from Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo. She is a granny and is long experienced in adapting meals to satisfy her grandchildren palates. Her poems are inspired by nature, everyday life and her ever extending family. Her first collection of poetry A Minor Concerto in Rahoon was published by Lapwing Press, Belfast in October 2022.