Domestic Gods
the house is full of them
spider demons spinning
lace to throttle flies
wood lice sprites
snuck in from the garden
to struggle up the stairs
each step a MacGillycuddy Reek gained
to drop a
minute later back
onto the hall floor where
they bicycle impossible legs
in a hopeless bid
to set the world to rights
nightmare of bodies rushing
to and fro their faces like
ripe brie in Daliesque collapse
sunflowers fleeing Van Gogh
vases with a single ear
suns, crazed, sizzling ice skies
the shepherdess above the fire -
snake flames flickering from
out the grate - who
flouncing her skirt
follows her sheep
over the cliff edge mantle
the sole relic amidst
the splintered porcelain
beside the grate her smile
domestic gods the house
is full of them so
why
not ditch the auld
fella with the beard
give a break to
apron angels
Pratibha Castle’s award-winning ‘sensual, sacramental’ debut pamphlet, A Triptych of Birds and A Few Loose Feathers (Hedgehog Press) publishes in 2021 and includes Domestic Gods. Her poems appear in literary journals and online sites including The Honest Ulsterman, The Blue Nib, One Hand Clapping, Impspired, Fragmented Voices, Sarasvati, Reach, Fly on the Wall, Words for the Wild. She has work forthcoming in Agenda, Dreich Magazine Season 2 issue 4, and Dreich Special ‘Summer Anywhere’, and Beyond Words.
Her work achieved highly commended in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition January 2021, won the 2009 NADFAS poetry competition, age range 13 - 17 has been shortlisted in various competitions and appears in anthologies. Castle broadcasts regularly on West Wilts Radio, The Poetry Place.
She was born in Dun laoghaire in 1950 and moved with her parents to England in 1953. As a child, she turned the bed-time story tradition on its head when instead of listening to stories told by her father, she entertained him with stories she made up herself.
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