The Corrigans circa 1906
by and published in Edition Nine of Pomegranate
They stand stiff as pilasters in silver halide,
the men in best clobber, hiding their crapulence.
Their tidy wives sit with servile smiles
and Boadicean tresses worked into fine plaits.
Deceiving us from beyond the grave.
5’5 in the centre stands Owen, the family head,
a mad Boer War veteran. His regimental rigidity
suggests rigor mortis set in long before he died.
His greying mane marks him out as the patriarch
of the pride (even if he was just a mouse’s whisker
away from being whisked away to a padded room).
He’s flanked and dwarfed by his brooding brood.
Great Uncle Jack on the far left will be compost
a lifetime before my mother is cut from her mother.
You can see the fool’s gold glinting in his eyes –
a new scheme to make a few florins, lead-stealer,
pigeon-poacher, quack-chemist, cat-skinner,
gin-distiller, amateur-abortionist.
His gin had a wealth of uses
and only blinded a few.
Richie McCaffery
Richie McCaffery was born in Newcastle in 1986, living in Edinburgh. Published by Peterloo, Magma and Poetry Scotland and recipient of an Edwin Morgan Bursary. Studying for an MLitt in Scottish Literature.