Alicia Byrne Keane

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The dusk, layered
purple at its furthest edge;
the washing machine’s circular whine;
the windows angled open, amber glow
segmented by blinds; the string of fairy lights
in a nearby garden. I hold my phone
out of the big landing window, experience
the evening as a consistency of temperature,
an envelopment like loose silk clothing.
I sit on the stairs for a while, although
I have no benchmark for when you are meant
to feel you have ‘taken’ the view ‘in.’
I am trying not to think of parties on patios,
of wet grass blades on calves and ankles,
vision pulsing numb with sun
or its absence in the cool interiors of trains.
I forget to close the window when I leave,
back up to my room, will only notice
when I sink through the darkness
of the stairwell later for a glass of water.
The sky indigo now, moths thumping in;
a portion of air with no glass
between myself and it, a matte hush
it seems I could reach to skim.

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Alicia Byrne Keane is a poet and concluding PhD scholar from Dublin. Alicia has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net Prizes and is in receipt of Irish Arts Council Agility Award and Dublin City Council Bursary Award funding, with a debut full collection forthcoming from Broken Sleep Books.