Jane Clarke - 2nd Place Poetry Winner

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Jane Clarke lives in Wicklow and is a member of Airfield Writers. She has had poems published in Revival Poetry Journal, The Stony Thursday Book, Listowel Winners Anthology, Boyne Berries and VirtualWriter.net. She has won prizes in Listowel Writer's Week (2007), the Francis Ledwidge Poetry Competition (2006), In Sight of Raftery Poetry Competition (2007), Wicklow Writers Competition (2008) and was highly commended in the Francis Ledwidge Poetry Competition (2007) and the Maria Edgeworth Literary Competition 2008.

For Michael

Despite the fire
of the rowan berries,
russet fountains of miscanthus,
golden glowing astilbes,
our garden is fading.

Nights grow colder
and we are waiting;
phonecalls about your eating,
emails about your sleeping,
texts about your breathing.

We rake bronze leaves,
cover dahlias with straw,
gather fallen apples.
In the waning light
we wheel one barrow after another.