A goose struggles in the grip of a haggard old woman. With hollow eyes and enormous hooked nose, she might be a witch. Did my mother know a woman like this, or did she invent the ominous scene? In “Old Woman with Goose,” I imagined my mother as a bitter artist, painting a creature who reflected her own dark emotions. But the poem isn’t simply about my mother. In writing this, I also imagined myself as the squirming goose and the cause of the old woman’s frustrations.
“Old Woman with Goose” was a finalist for the 2016 Pablo Neruda Prize at Nimrod International Journal. A revised version appears in Secret Formulas & Techniques of the Masters, now available from Brick Road Poetry Press and other book sellers. Find info here: Secret Formulas & Techniques of the Masters.
Image @ Louise Craven Hourrigan