A neighbourhood.
At dusk.

Things are getting ready
to happen
out of sight.

Stars and moths.
And rinds slanting around fruit.

But not yet.

One tree is black.
One window is yellow as butter.

A woman leans down to catch a child
who has run into her arms
this moment.

Stars rise.
Moths flutter.
Apples sweeten in the dark.

—Eavan Boland

Rights & Access

From In a Time of Violence, 1994
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY

Copyright 1994 by Eavan Boland.
All rights reserved.

Reprinted by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. from In a Time of Violence. Copyright 1994 by Eavan Boland. For further permissions information, contact W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110.

  • Eavan Boland

    Eavan Boland (1944-2020) was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1944. She published numerous poetry collections, including A Woman Without a Country: Poems (W. W. Norton, 2014).

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