Rafael Mendes is a Brazilian-Irish poet published in Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, Wasafari, gorse, and Poetry Salzburg Review. His pamphlet The Migrant Dictionary co-won the Ireland Chair of Poetry Pamphlet Series 2025.
for Signe Lury
You wake up to the primary school bell, January blowing through the window
unlatched overnight when lust’s bronchioles gasped for air. Outside,
ants dissect leaves, children tread gravel and drizzle to reach the classroom,
confiding yesterday’s marital disasters, dreading how far the summer break is,
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