Nine Lines

Nov 01, 2001

This is all I can spare.
What did you expect
Amongst the stones of your heart?

There was only ever this.
Some afterthoughts left out
Going stale overnight.

The door key is mine now.
The bottom of the stairs too.
This silence is sweeter than words.

Joseph Horgan was born in Birmingham, England, to Irish parents. Previously shortlisted for a Hennessy Award and a past winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Award, his first collection, Slipping Letters Beneath the Sea, was published by Doghouse in 2008. The Song at your Backdoor, a book about place and landscape, was published by Collins Press in 2010.