Sean Armstrong

Rose Cottage
County Antrim

Dear Mrs. Armstrong,
Our bed was narrow.
We slept close, on our sides
covered by a blanket
woven on my loom.
Sean dreamed of whistling tinkers
and tankards of Guinness
of Collin, his friend
and writing, his life.
I dreamed
of peering through a mist
hoping for a glimpse of him
fierce blue eyes
red hair on a rampage
his beard neatly trimmed
like a hedge
sheltering song birds.

It falls to me to tell you --
mother I've never seen --
that last night
after our wedding in Belfast
a Catholic bullet entered
just above Sean's heart.
That my joy became a stone
and that your grandson
quickens
in a new bride's womb.

Rafaella Del Bourgo

Rafaella Del Bourgo is a long-time Berkeley resident who teaches English at the college level. She has traveled all over the world and has lived in Tasmania and Hawaii. Her writing has appeared in magazines and journals such as WordWrights, Caveat Lector, Puerto Del Sol, Rattle, and The BitterOleander . She has won several awards for her writing, and summer 2001 was a finalist for the Frances Locke Memorial Award for Poetry, and the River Styx Poetry Contest juried by Billy Collins. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2002, and won the Lullwater Prize for Poetry in winter of 2003. Her first collection of poetry, I Am Not Kissing You, was published in August, 2003. She lives in a Queen Anne Victorian house with her husband and a small herd of cats.