A writer in several genres, Geraldine Mills is the author of five collections of poetry, three collections of short stories and two children’s novels for middle-grade readers.
Things To Do When You Go Home
Untumble the walls of the house.
Uprise its lintel from the overgrowth,
like a calf-skin psalter lifted from the bog.
Unlatch the door.
Unsmoor the fire
Updraught the embers waiting there
all the while you were beyond the whale-way.
Untether its glow.
Unsour the fields.
Uproot the dock, the poison ragwort, scutch.
Ease the clay back in beneath your nails.
Unhang the rust-gnawed gate.
Unsay the words you felt you had to say:
upsticks, the leaving and the coming back.
Ring the rhyme of scythe along the day.
Unbreak the heart.
