So you take some symbol, like
the overcoat the pockets
an obscure tangle of thread & air
so any weight dropped there went right
to the lining:
that strange mix
of discretion & batwing billow – no buttons
either, or maybe there once were
one or two
across the front, the whole thing
angles, panels. This is overexplaining.
How easily it happens. You would walk home
along the canal with your arms folded
across yourself:
the coat was actually very warm
when you pushed the heft of it together.
Even now, the memory of it makes you think
of the long, strip-lit insides of trains.
In a nice way. It’s a nice memory.
The myself-but-not-
either-gender sentiment
seems like such a small thing to talk about,
like opening the window in June,
feeling the room-temperature
slip of the air.
the overcoat the pockets
an obscure tangle of thread & air
so any weight dropped there went right
to the lining:
that strange mix
of discretion & batwing billow – no buttons
either, or maybe there once were
one or two
across the front, the whole thing
angles, panels. This is overexplaining.
How easily it happens. You would walk home
along the canal with your arms folded
across yourself:
the coat was actually very warm
when you pushed the heft of it together.
Even now, the memory of it makes you think
of the long, strip-lit insides of trains.
In a nice way. It’s a nice memory.
The myself-but-not-
either-gender sentiment
seems like such a small thing to talk about,
like opening the window in June,
feeling the room-temperature
slip of the air.
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Dr. Alicia Byrne Keane is a poet and recent graduate from Dublin, Ireland. Alicia holds a B.A. and Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin’s School of English and an MSt. from Oxford University. Alicia has twice been awarded the Irish Arts Council Agility Award (2021, 2022) and is in receipt of a Dublin City Council Bursary Award (2022). Alicia’s recent poetry has been published in Poetry Salzburg Review, Anthropocene and New Irish Writing; forthcoming work includes poetry in The Seneca Review and a debut full collection from Broken Sleep Books (December 2023).
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