Poem of the Week: “Awaiting Burial” by Sinéad Morrissey

Awaiting Burial

Being born was as painful as this—
The crusade of the heart to bloom in mist,

The pull of blood
On everything the body had

To pump in a new direction,
The sliding dissection

Of water
And air—

Getting the heart to falter
And the lungs to breathe water

Requires
The tonweight of the sky,

A damaged hillside, night-time,
The tunnel you dreamt of, O

 Sarah, speak to me, you’ve been through
The journey, was there light on the other side

–Sinéad Morrissey, from The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Vol. I (2005)