STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
ALICIA BYRNE KEANE
The leaves turn harsh when drawn,
become toothed like strawberry or mint.
I can’t capture their shell-scalloped edge,
the Christmas cactus flare of their bloom.
This was the first plant species sent to space,
I learn: ‘bright indirect sunlight’ will do.
Survival must be possible, have been possible,
in the case of an Irish summer, of nebulae
twisting beyond the glass expanse.
This May has been full of hailstones
milky as deep-sea creatures, a firmament
dashed on tarmac. In any case, here we are,
in the same room as each other, your shape
inscrutable. One large leaf shows up
in every sketch I make: ungainly to the side,
turning crudely to shovel or shoe. The names,
various horrors: Flaming Katy, Widow’s Thrill.
A difficult feeling accompanies my thought
of a greenhouse, small and square;
white space-station glow beyond, just
out of the picture. Seedlings, breathing
sterility, making their arc above the world.
Our separation, felt where leaves curl
at the centre: glossy: new to air.
Alicia Byrne Keane is a final year PhD student from Dublin, Ireland. Alicia has a first class honours degree in English Literature and French from Trinity College Dublin and a MSt. in English Literature 1900-Present from Oxford University, and is currently finishing an Irish Research Council-funded PhD study that problematizes ‘vagueness’ and the ethics of translation in the work of Samuel Beckett and Haruki Murakami, at TCD. Alicia’s poetry has been published in The Moth, The Colorado Review, The Cardiff Review, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Banshee, Bayou, the [PANK] blog, Entropy, Parentheses Journal, Abridged, and the Honest Ulsterman, among others. Alicia’s poem ‘surface audience’ was nominated for a Pushcart Prize; the short story ‘Snorkels’ was featured in Marrowbone Books' anthology 'The Globe and Scales', alongside the work of other Irish writers such as Dermot Bolger, Mia Gallagher, and Louise Nealon. The poem ‘Cloud / land arc’ was nominated for the Orison Anthology; the poem 'Temenos' came second place in Oregon Poetry Association's Fall 2020 Contest.
