Brid Connolly - The Fourteenth Lock

I have always enjoyed reading poetry, short stories, and novels and I frequently attempted to write over the years. In order to develop my writing skills, I enrolled on the Maynooth University Creative Writing Certificate in 2015. Since then, I have had a short story published in Live Encounters, When Skies are Grey, and I have performed this at various live mic events. I also won the Kildare Readers Short Story competition and had two short stories short-listed in the RTE Francis MacManus short story competition, which were subsequently broadcast. In addition, two of my poems were long listed in the Anthony Cronin and Fish Publishing competitions.

The Fourteenth Lock

Blackened balance-beams on the lock gates clasp canal water, yet it spills like silk. A bridge-eye blinks. The Sligo train lacerates entangled verges of reeds and tussocks. We walk the towpath, bristling with the hurt of sutures unpicked despite the pain, and staunching blood with hollow hearts. An ashen silence falls like dribbling stains. We rest. The lock gate’s weather-striated arm stretches towards the quarried dressed stone bridge. A breeze from the Shannon relays a balm seasoned with sweet fragranced sedge. It bathes the heart, unblinds the eyes. The flood enfolds debris along the sides.