by Mary Byrne
Dawn
A black man with thick, thick spectacles sweeps the gutter with a green plastic broom. In Bamako his wife and children await the money order he will send from the post office on rue du Louvre, open all day Sunday for people such as him. In his bourgeois home the French president studies the timetable for the last days of his Presidential campaign.
The Kabyle sets La Mandoline coffee machine in motion and writes his luncheon menu.
A light wind moving between clouds and earth ruffles the early leaves on the plane trees. A blue neon ‘Pompes Funèbres’ sign is reflected in a puddle that is just the right length.
Acknowledgments
Heartfelt thanks to friends, family and editors who’ve supported my work
‘A day on the Rue du Faubourg’, The Cossack Review (US).
‘A parallel life’,Kore Press Chapbook 2015. Winner Kore Press Short Story Award.
‘Au pair girls wanted in France’, Orbis (print) (UK), Irish Double Issue No. 69/70, Summer/Autumn 1988.
‘Between men’, Sentinel Champions, No.7.
‘Frank stands his ground in Belleville’, Best Paris Stories (print and ebook). Summertime publications (2012) anthology of prizewinning stories.
‘I say “Good Morning” to my truck’, Crannóg (Ireland) 14 (print), Spring 2007.
‘I’m talking too much, aren’t I?’, West 47 and Cuirt Annual 2005 print anthology (Ireland).
‘It’s not about the money’, Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories 2006-7 ed. David Marcus, Faber Books, London, 2007.
‘Lightning strikes twice’, Southeast Review, Vol.29, No.2 (print). Florida State University.
‘Mastery’, Prick of the Spindle (US) print magazine Issue 3.
‘Musical Interlude’, RTE Lyric FM July 2000.
‘Nikodje’s lap of honor’, Enigma No.3 (print) (UK), Autumn 2009.
‘Old wood best to burn’, Transnational Literature (Australia) November 2013.
‘Plugging the causal breach’, Numéro Cinq Magazine May 2016
‘Righteous Indignation’, Irish Times 7 April 2001.
‘What doesn’t choke will fatten’, Prairie Schooner, Spring 2012 (print). University of Nebraska Press.
