Denise McSheehy was born in Brighton, studied in Ireland and currently lives near Totnes. Her work has been widely published, broadcast on BBC Radio and successful in major poetry competitions. A pamphlet Salt Prints was published by Jones Press (editor Gerard Woodward) in 2000. In 2006 she received a major bursary from Arts Council England. Denise’s prize winning collection Salt was published by the Poetry Can in September 2008.

Swans Drinking at Midnight

I walked by the canal late at night
– very still –
hearing the swans drink

the birds in their punk
eye make-up
steely, formidable

black lips dipping
into the black
rippling silk of the water

the sound of sipping and drinking
water slipping
down white throats

their white feathers framed
by the pocked concrete
their necks languid and lithe –

a swan sipping the water
dipping its head
into the spin of black liquid

water sipped –
the small sound of thirst slaked
a swan drinking at midnight.