Teri Murray on Newenham Street
.
The House In Newenham Street
.
I have come to this house
along the Slí Dála
the ancient route
from Dublin to the west
.
Brought all my confusion
mania and suffering
and placed it on the black mantle-piece
where dust gathers
taking the hard edge off the pain
.
A woman lived here once
perhaps she too
set the menorah on the black mantle-piece
branches like pollarded willow shoots
and remembered Lithuania
the army of the Tsar
pogroms and death
the scapegoats of those
who believed in Christ
.
Or maybe she heard as I do now
the humming of the walls
or the sonata from a piano
played by the hands of someone long dead
or found comfort
in the curtains
fabric folded
like hands in prayer.
.
– Teri Murray
.
Photographs by Natalie Woociker:
