‘I’ve read that.’ I said,
pointing to it
sly
in the middle of the bookcase.

‘No, you have not’, my father replied.

‘I have, I have!
He travelled for ten years
and he met giants with one eye
and women singing at him
as he sailed by.
It was in my book, in the library’, my eight years
insisted.

‘His wife was Pen-el-ope.’
I’d never heard the word –
rhymed it with ‘hope’.

‘This is a different book’, my father said.
‘It’s written by someone else.’
‘It’s the same’, I cried.
‘Look! It says on the side
ULYSSES’.

---

Karen J McDonnell’s writing is widely published and anthologised, including The Poetry Bus, Peaceweavers Anthology (Culture Matters, UK), Washing Windows V, Fire (Arlen House), Vital Signs (Poetry Ireland), Romance Options (Dedalus Press), New Isles Press 2, Skylight 47, Crannóg, The Stony Thursday, The Cormorant, The Galway Review, The North, and New Irish Writing.  Her poem ‘Driftwood’ was shortlisted for Irish Poem of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, while non-fiction and poetry have been Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominated. Her collections This Little World and TIDAL are published by Doire Press. She lives in the west of Ireland. More at karenjmcdonnell.com

Author’s picture by  Aidan Sweeney Photography.

2026 Bloomsday Supplement - Table of Contents

 

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