THE LETTER 1963.

A IRISH GIRL AND A LETTER TO HER FATHER FROM NUNS AT SCHOOL IN 1963

Magdalene
watches her
father dig
over his
garden plot,
from her small
bedroom view,
his back bent
then upright,
sweaty brow
he wipes with
the back of
his large hand.

Her mother
is cooking
the dinner
in the hot
large kitchen
below stairs.

Father's got
a dark mood,
just because
the nuns wrote
about me
and Mary
being seen
in the bog
(lavatory)
together.

What were you
doing there?
He bellowed
once he'd read
the letter.

Just talking,
nothing else.

In the bog;
can't you stop
talking just
long enough
to answer
the call of
DARN NATURE?
He shouted.

Then he slapped
her backside
in passing
to go out
to his plot
to dig out
his anger.

She watches
as he stands,
straightens up,
rubs his back,
wipes his brow,
then proceeds
to dig more.

Her backside
still stings now,
but her thoughts
and feelings
are on young
Mary whose
body she
loves, whose
lips she kissed,
feck him, she
says, seeing
a Magpie
settling
behind him
on the ground.

Mary's dad
will not be
please if he
got a darn
letter too,
God's knows what,
she mutters,
he will do.