I slept in my shoes,
was reminded
of the weightless abandon
of my bedroom after school,
where, slumped
fully-clothed on the bed,
I listened for your step
on the stair, your warm voice
calling me to dinner.
But here, as the hostel
coughs up another day,
I wake to the jagged sounds
of morning,
the too-loud details
of invisible lives
and the sticky voice
in my head, wondering
where I will sleep tonight.
© Maurice Devitt
Maurice Devitt was the runner-up in The Interpreter’s House Poetry Competition in 2017, winner of the Trocaire/Poetry Ireland Competition in 2015 and has been placed or shortlisted in many competitions including the Patrick Kavanagh Award, Listowel Collection Competition, Over the Edge New Writer Competition and Cuirt New Writing Award. With 200 poems published in Ireland and internationally, he has a debut collection upcoming from Doire Press in 2018. He is also the curator of the Irish Centre for Poetry Studies site and a founder member of the Hibernian Writers’ Group.
