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Paula Meehan

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KIPPE

KIPPE

KIPPE

Like a knitted Dutch mitten
found in a patch of snow

I pull the word for little house
over my frozen fingers –

crawling in sunlight
over my own shadow

dragging my bundle of hides
my bundle of skins

towards the door and in
to the stink of sleep

my hand thawed at last
from its carapace of ice.

© 2005, Paula Meehan

Paula Meehan

Paula Meehan

(Ireland, 1955)

Paula Meehan was born in 1955 and raised in two famous working-class districts of Dublin, before graduating from Trinity College and Eastern Washington University. She has conducted workshops with many inner-city communities and prisons as well as universities. Her work is much translated and among the prizes she has won are The Martin Toonder Award (1995), the Butler Literary Award (1998) and ...

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Poems of Paula Meehan

KIPPE

A STRAY DREAM

OLD SKIN

ASHES

DEATH OF A FIELD

Close

KIPPE

Like a knitted Dutch mitten
found in a patch of snow

I pull the word for little house
over my frozen fingers –

crawling in sunlight
over my own shadow

dragging my bundle of hides
my bundle of skins

towards the door and in
to the stink of sleep

my hand thawed at last
from its carapace of ice.

KIPPE

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