Joyce Butler, Ireland
All Earth
I wait until all earth is quiet
and land falls away,
one side a map
outshining blue light,
red deserts now
where we fall
one by one,
under a killing sun.
Our voices remain
under the sea,
calling out like dolphins
remembering
where our lives
should be.
Submerged now.
Yes, destroyed.
My Own Sakura
I kiss your face with cherry
blossoms as you sleep,
My own Sakura of Spring;
they see me weep.
From south to north
my blossom follows all
of your footprints.
In fourteen days I open,
a carpet at your feet.
Is my awakening
my red-crowned crane of
Okinawa? Archipelago
of warm water currents.
Hanami.
Let us hold hands
and go.
Hanami.
Plum Blossom.
Two flowers opening
a pink river, blooming.
Joyce Butler lives and works in her hometown of Waterford, Ireland. She is married with two children. She has been shortlisted twice by the Atlantic Short Story Contest: The Lone Wolf (2015) and Spring Rain is a Different Entity (2017). She writes poetry that is inspired by nature and her previous experiences of severe depression from which she is now fully recovered. Her poems have been published in Deise Voices and Inside The Bell Jar online magazine. She has also completed the third draft of a historical fiction novel, receiving mentorship from novelist Carolyn Jess Cooke through the Mslexia website.
