Wedding Party Woman

by Ella Padden

I watch from the hedgerow,

Boys with straight backs and girls in black.

In the shades of sorrow, face covered with a dark hat. 

Funerary bouquets wither like youth as the flashbulb of a camera,

Illuminates a bright buckled shoe. My mark, a footnote in a photo.

Here I fade, absorbed by the rose bush – my promised land overrun by thorns. 

Reproduced with kind permission of the author. This poem was composed in Poetry as Commemoration workshops held at The Pearse Museum, Dublin, in October 2022. The workshops were led by writer Kevin McDermott.

Cover Image: Sepia photograph of the wedding party at the marriage of Kevin O’Higgins and Brigid Cole
Collection: Papers of Kevin O’Higgins
Reference: P197/183
Archive: UCD Archives