Irish Mother

(“If you fall and break your legs, don’t come running to me”)

What have you passed to me

across that dark stillness of shame

Secrecy so hidden, is but

a trace of memory dust

Which I inspect, particle by

glinting notion of

quartz particle

Bastardy transferred as mysteries

Is it the curse of mixed race

to dance from grave to grave

of those we love?

A murder would go unsolved

treason undiscovered

but this secret I pulled

from a forbidden drawer

After all our farewells