Our Poem Of The Week is During The Genocide, by Jessica Traynor.
During the Genocide
I am a bad, impatient mother.
I shout at my kids, push them away,
because every night when I dream
I'm in a school where soldiers
have come to kill the children.
I ask them two things:
to wait until I have them all in my arms,
and to kill them before me
so they won’t be left alone.
It helps me to feel numb,
like when as a child
I’d swim in the North Sea
and the heat in my blood
would fizzle out until
I couldn’t feel my arms and legs –
small soul bobbing in space.
But now, the feeling won’t
stop its clinging, pushing
desperate fingers into my body
till with the first shots,
the membrane tears
and all that’s left
is the hope that death
is a step out of cold water
into spring air.
Originally published in Washing Windows V: Women Revolutionise Irish Poetry, 1975-2025 from Arlen House
About The Poet: Jessica Traynor is the author of three critically acclaimed books of poetry. Her latest collection, Pit Lullabies, (Bloodaxe Books, 2022), is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is poetry editor at Banshee Press.
