This time he dragged her down, bound with him
Clutching they spun inhaling, plunging in
Needle tight breaths, she smacked and fought back
Against his tourniquet grip, she slipped free in slack
Necked gropes as he grasped her hopes and crushed
As burning, they spiralled, kicking then hushed

Foiled in mutual dependence they caved in grey space
Where silently they swayed in soft spooning haze.
Sniffing deep breaths, clung, with heads thrown back in slow,
Washing relief, no longer attached, he let her go

And she fled through thick dungeons, the child’s dread cry
out of reach in the distant darkness, she dived to lie
in dark pools where watery creatures claimed her
silent screams, ricocheted in echoing chambers.

 

(c) Copyright 2017 Theresa Ryder

Theresa was PA to author, J.P. Donleavy before graduating with an MA (Classics) and a teaching degree from Maynooth University. She won the Molly Keane Creative Writing Award, 2015 and has since been published in various literary journals for her prose and poetry. She was selected to read at the Women X Borders Readathon, 2017 in the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin. She is working on a novel based on the events of her Classics dissertation.