Snails Teeth

First we hunt the slugs and snails
Wait for their slick glitter to shine
In torch light trails.
We protect crimson tomatoes
Whose leaves they feast on
With a thousand teeth
Dripping juice and bursting skin.
We can sleep in the shed.
Herbs watch up, parsley and sage
Growing and breathing in pots.
Damp mulch humming in plastic
I slither and squirm beneath you
Wet and wine-drunk I bite your skin.
Can you carry this wooden house on your back?
Make any wet earth our home,
We can fuck on the floor.
Burrowing animals
Warmed by stove fire
While rusted tools glint like teeth.

Aisling Cullen studied English Literature and Music in UCD, before moving to Vietnam to begin her teaching English in 2016. She started writing poetry there to capture the miasma of sights and sounds in her environment. She returned to Dublin in 2018, where she broke out onto the spoken word scene with her pieces on relationships and femininity, anchored by her musicality and innate sensitivity to surroundings. Based in Dublin, Aisling is now working in tech, and establishing herself as poet, blogger and writer.

Image by Patrik Rosenfeld