The Act

Nov 01, 2001

My brother knows how to jive.
I saw him dancing in the back yard.
A shifting grace across the bare ground.
His suit jacket flapping.
When men dance like that
They want to be their fathers,
To stop all other movement.
It is an act of delirium.

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.