A Poem by Róisín Tierney

The Erratics

See them there, caught in the full throttle
of their spring frenzy, bucks and does.
With jointed skulls and precocial habits,
their whole lives have set them up for this
roister of chase and fight, of fisticuffs,
of scratch and slap and hind-leg rake.
It’s all love, really. She treats him rough —
these are mountain hares, not pet rabbits —
but later he’ll cover her, biting her neck. Mottled
foxgloves will quiver and shake
as his white scut dips, dips and rises.

Róisín Tierney is an Irish poet who divides her time between London and Granada. Her pamphlet Dream Endings (Rack Press) won the 2012 Michael Marks Award.  She has published two collections: The Spanish-Italian Border (Arc 2014) and Tiger Moth (Turas Press 2022). Tiger Moth was one of the Books of The Year in the TLS in December 2022. www.roisintierney.blogspot.com