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It snowed all day, a slanted insistence from the East, in a wind that never let up, the kitchen clock sounded a regular tik-tock.

We sat, caught up in a slackhandedness, only our shelter in this storm connected us together and with nowhere to be, and nobody else about, our friendship has become an act of confrontation.

I focus on a lobed ewer, its flared neck, curved spout, and its ribbed handle. I watch the bone-China rose cups; one is cracked in a set of twelve in a fitted box.

I retreat, it is now my default setting, retreat to what sustains me, my imaginary safe places.

The flight of irresponsibility begins; I am on a moving train going away somewhere.

I see people in the carriage, I wonder where else they have been, is this carriage their daily grind or something else, like a day away, going out on a tide and returning?

I can make friends with someone here, with another human being.

The train has no music playing. I swipe to find Spotify on my phone. A silent train is now a fearsome thing. A man, sitting nearby, watches a virtual reality show, Love Island? on his laptop screen. Over his green bubble cap, he wears a large headset, he sits awkwardly, with squashed down papers.

 I look away and watch the carriage glass closely, to observe nothing.

I jump, watchful, I am almost sure I have just seen on that glass my seventeen-year-old self. I stare at the spot; the train emerges from out of a tunnel and all that is there is a terraced city, without flowers.

For a moment I am feeling lost, until I realise that Maximo came to my birthday last year. He brought the cake and later he left with Anneliese from the Café bar, I never liked chocolate torte. The train keeps moving going straight ahead, like the falling snow, it has become monotonous too.

I stare to see if I can see a bell, to press and to get off.

I cannot see one, and my phone runs out, the music has stopped.

Suddenly, I can smell the snow, taste it on my lips, is it time to return?

 I stand on the tracks and let the train move on. I can hear the tik-tock of the clock.

I stand up and switch the kettle on, reach over for two cups, and set them down, side by side, I press play on the music-stack, and wait.

Margaret Kiernan is an Irish author and a Best of The Net Nominee for Creative Non-Fiction Award, 2021 and, 2022 and poetry and essay, 2023. She writes poetry, fiction, essay, memoir, and flash. She has had poetry and prose published in hard back, in e-book, on-line, and in literary journals and magazines, in Ireland, UK, America, Canada, Germany, India, and Australia. She also has multiple short stories and poems in anthology collections and cultural publications.

She launched her Live eBook, a young adult fiction, in June 2024, titled, The Bay of Nectar” published by liveencounterspublishing.net The Bay of Nectar by Margaret Kiernan by Live Encounterspublishing.net – Issuu. https://issuu.com/liveencounters/docs/the-bay-of-nectar-by-margaret-kiernan-issuu

Alba Publishing, UK published her firstpoetry collection in July 2024, titled, “A Mirage of Lost Things.”

Public profile & URL www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kiernan-a5265417, She has Professional Membership at the Irish Writers Centre. Dublin. Ireland.

She participated in a published collection in which professional writers and recognised curators participated, Published on December 6^th, 2022. Ref: K. Higgins Chapbook Gift Presentation.

The Arts Council of Ireland and Westmeath County Council Arts Office awarded her a Professional Development Bursary, 2021.

Mayo County Council and The Arts Council of Ireland granted her a Heinrich Boll Residency and Bursary, 2023.

Shortlisted in competitions, e.g., The Cathal Bui Bel-coo International Poetry competition, 2021, The Bard of Connacht competition in 2022. Runner-up in The Hannah Grealy International Literary Awards. 2022.

Published at

-Literature to-day, University of Oklahoma.

Anthology Magazine.

Live Encounters Writing and Poetry Magazine.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal.

The Ekphrastic Review.

The Irish Literary Times-online.

The Galway Review, (Margaret is an ambassador there)

Wildfire Words/Frosted Fire/Cheltenham Poetry. U K.

Wells Street Journal-University of Westminster

Beyond Words International Literary Magazine

Tim Saunders Publishing, UK.

Black-lion Press/Cathal Bùi Bel-coo Poet.

The Blue Nib Literary Journal.

Dissident Voice Journal UK

Writing In a Woman’s Voice Journal.

Sonder Magazine.

Wilderness House Literary Review and Press. USA.

Pendemic.ie Journal-covid nineteen collection, – archived at University College Dublin.

Poet-Head.Wordpress.com. (Collection of Contemporary Women Poet’s in Ireland, Live archive at The National Library of Ireland Dublin 2 and, at University College, Bellfield, Dublin 2).

Red Fern Review, USA.

Civic Leicester University Poetry, UK

Corncrake Literary Magazine, NI.

Scarlet Dragonfly Poetry Journal, Canada.

The Burrow Literary Journal & publishing press, Australia.

Chewers and Mastic adore, Global.

Imp spired Magazine, UK

Brave New World, India.

Verse Visual.

Bath Flash Fiction.

Catchwater Magazine

The New Verse News

Dumpster Fire Press. USA

Muse-pie Press at Shot Glass Journal. USA

The Daily Haiku.

Sand Journal Magazine, Berlin.

Vox Gal via, Galway Advertiser broadsheet.

A New Ulster, Literary Press, NI.

Spilling Cocoa over Martin Amis, UK.

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Margaret reads and writes with Over the Edge on Thursdays advanced poetry workshop group, previously at Galway Arts Centre, then facilitated by Mr Kevin Higgins, Poet. RIP.

She is a member of The Kevin poetry Faction on-line international Zoom group, a member of Ox Mountain poets, The Ekphrastic Review writers, and poets.

Listed, in the Index of Contemporary Women Poets in Ireland, 2020

She holds a Degree in Arts in Humanities in Advocacy from Atlantic Technological University Sligo, plus, Irish and European Law on Inclusion and Diversity.

An International Degree in Business Management, from The University of Sheffield International College, and the Technological University of the Shannon Athlone. Institute of Administrative Mgt.

Her background is in Advocacy in Human and Social Rights. She is a Democracy activist.

Margaret has completed courses and workshops in writing and poetry.

Tutors in poetry

-Annemarie Ni Churrain, Martin Dyer, Colm Keegan, Monica Corish, Moyra Donaldson, Anne McMaster, Noel Monahan (Master Series), Kevin Higgins, Dr Arthur Broomfield, (Beckett Scholar). Gerry Boland.

Tutors in prose include, Jan Carson, Claire Allan, Anne McMaster, Conor Kostick, Carlo Gebler, Malacai O’Doherty, Lynda Kirby, Ciara Doorley, Susan Millar Dumars, and Marie Gethings.

Margaret has four grown-up children. She lives in Westmeath with her dog Molly. She paints in watercolours and acrylics and has the following interests. Democracy, nature and wildlife, philosophy, astronomy, gardening, music, spirituality, reading, archaeology, and historical heritage.

In 2024, she accepted an ambassador role for Westmeath Creative Ireland.

 Public profile & URL www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kiernan-a5265417

Margaret Kiernan