The Quiet Violence of Housework
the wine on my throat
rubs down raw
with piano wire.
in the sitting room
my girlfriend
goes through boxes of clothes,
picking out donations
in a rotten wine-
dark mood. there is no sound
heard in silence
more unsettling
than the quiet
hard violence
of housework being done
by a partner.
chrys could fold tissues
like a punch through our drywall.
I did offer
to help her
if she wanted some help –
she said to go away
and I did so.
Diarmuid ó Maolalaí
I'm a graduate of English Literature from Trinity College in
Dublin and recently returned there after four years abroad in the UK and
Canada. I have been writing poetry and short fiction for the past five or
six years with some success. My writing has appeared in such publications
as 4'33', Strange Bounce, Ariel Chart and Bong is Bard, Down in the Dirt
Magazine, Out of Ours, The Eunoia Review, Kerouac's Dog, More Said Than Done,
Star Tips, Myths Magazine, Ariadne's Thread, The Belleville Park Pages, Killing
the Angel and Unrorean Broadsheet, by whom I was twice nominated for the
Pushcart Prize. I have also had my work published in two collections; 'Love is
Breaking Plates in the Garden' and 'Sad Havoc Among the Birds'