When I heard I was dying,
I told my ten year old
who straight away asked
why I'd told her
since it only made her sad.

I didn't have an answer but
we decided it might help
to use the word chocolate
instead of dying.

Days later my daughter asked,
Mum, when you chocolate,
can I have your phone ?

Jet Dracula

Albert's death
dressed Victoria
black for life –

A silver lining
for Whitby town
mining fossils
of monkey puzzle
for fuel not gem.

Transforming overnight
from mine to throat
– as Stoker would –
the dark jewel
of lament and regret.

The End of St Barbara

Her father understood the three windows
in her new bath house proved her conversion.

Patron saint of mathematics – pray for us.

He oversaw her torture but the fire snuffed out,
by morning all her wounds had healed.

Patron saint of extreme events – pray for us.

He beheaded her himself and she swore before dying
that to call her name in distress would bring relief.

Patron saint of the Italian Navy – pray for us.

Heading home in a thunderstorm,
her father was consumed by flame.

Patron saint of lightning – pray for us.

In 1969 she was cut from the Litany;
her story judged to be entirely fabulous.

Patron saint of fireworks – grant us peace.

A broad vocabulary

Cuboidal and Columnar, once my favourite words,
rolled round on my tongue at school.
Under my breath I loved the heft of their
shamrocked syllables lipped with air.

But when I first heard Cunnilingus, well
that took the biscuit. Never said
out loud only as a whisper. A sister word
to an unknown secret brother.

So when tough but pretty Billy,
snogging me after the roller disco, asked
Do you do any other sort of kissing?
I said No like the question was daft.

Way later I twigged he meant fellatio,
a rocket of a word I'd not yet heard.

Eithne Hand is from Greystones, Co Wicklow. Her poetry was shortlisted for the Patrick Kavanagh award 2010, Hennessy New Irish Writing 2014 and this year’s Gregory O’Donoghue award. She produces Sunday with Gay Byrne on RTÉ Lyric FM and curates the First Thought Talks programme at Galway International Arts Festival.