3 Poems from Rona Fitzgerald

Womankind In my Irish childhood, men were at work. Children and women had the run of the house. Street life flourished. Women could drink tea, congregate in kitchens and gardens. Even in the special parlour. We never said ‘rape’.  Family, church, the Irish people gave us phrases -  ‘frightened, interfered with  a bit of bother’ When they asked me, aged seven, what happened,  I didn’t know the words. At eleven, I still couldn’t say. Men were protected from other me...