Exciting Times

by Naoise Dolan

prefer you in a suit,” I said. He didn’t sympathize enough with my politics to understand how embarrassing or personal a confession this was.

He’s posh, though. Not Dublin posh, British posh. He says ‘shall.’”

In Ireland you got five years for rape, fourteen for aborting your rapist’s fetus, and a lifetime in the laundries for the fact of being raped, and there was a laundry still open when you were born.

“It’s normal to miss your family,” he said. I said that was why I didn’t.

The English taught us English to teach us they were right.

“Wait, Mam, I can’t believe I forgot to say: he’s a banker.” She hung up.

Which is an interesting trait in someone who can’t orally distinguish between ‘three’ and ‘tree.’