The New Neighbours – Maurice Devitt

The New Neighbours

The sign had hardly gone up
when the house was sold,
a young couple with two kids,
people said, and we wondered
how they would fit into our perfect lives.
They started well, it must be said –
two weeks like a film set
and the paintwork was pristine,
the garden in bloom. We thought drugs
or witness protection, and yet
they integrated with aplomb –
she joined the book club,
he talked rugby on the street,
but still, five years later,
there is something
I can’t quite put my finger on.

Maurice Devitt: Runner-up in The Interpreter’s House Poetry Competition in 2017, he was winner of the Trocaire/Poetry Ireland Competition in 2015 and has been placed or shortlisted in many competitions including the Patrick Kavanagh Award, Listowel Collection Competition, Over the Edge New Writer Competition and Cuirt New Writing Award. He is also the curator of the Irish Centre for Poetry Studies site, a founder member of the Hibernian Writers’ Group and has a debut collection upcoming from Doire Press in 2018.