Ronnie McGinn's Poetry Page

Connie Roberts emigrated from Ireland in 1983, earned a bachelor's and master's degrees in New York, and now teaches creative writing at Hofstra University on Long Island. The poem is from a work-in-progress, "Not the Delft School," a memoir in verse of growing up in an orphanage (industrial school) in Ireland during the 1960s and 70s.

Poems from this manuscript have been published in journals in Ireland and in United States, two of which include "Irish Pages" (Chris Agee, Belfast) and "The Recorder" (Eamon Grennan, New York). Sections of this manuscript have also earned the distinction of being a semi-finalist in the "Discovery"/The Nation contest in 2000 and 2002, in addition to being a finalist in the Dana Awards competition, 2003. Furthermore, a poem from this collection was short-listed for the Strokestown Poetry Contest in 2001.

The Laundry

Great, whirring washing machines. An electric horse-
Trojan-big-click-clicks as clothes dry on rows
Of wooden pegs. Hissing steam and slurping sluice.
Deep porcelain sinks, with gray, ribbed washboards.

In the Folding Room to the left, a nun
Feeds white sheets through a cylindrical mangle;
Two flush-faced girls fold the hot, pressed cotton,
Dancing back and forth, as in The Walls of Limerick.

Friday evening, children with towels rolled
Under their arms queue outside a cubicle
For a bath. The wet ceramic tile cold
On their feet; the air headily carbolic.

Though, the wooden tables have long been scoured,
The enamel jugs and basins put away,
Out by the clothesline, no young girls are heard
Singing and laughing on a spring day.

© Connie Roberts