Michael J. Whlean served as a peacekeeper with the Irish Army in South Lebanon and Kosovo. He was 2nd Place Winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 2011 and selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series in 2012. His poems and short stories have been published in Cyphers, Crannog and The Moth. (www.michaeljwhelan.wordpress.com)
SKELETON HEAD
Kosovo minefields
Out there in the black field
a metal skeleton with a helmet on its head
studies me – anticipates my every step,
tallies my birthdays.
Its grave is tracked with stakes
like candles on a cake
corralled by barbed-wire lace
and yellow tape,
waiting for the balloon to go up.
My days aren’t numbered yet.
But the skeleton head yells at me
‘ACHTUNG MINEN,
if you come to the party
you never go home.’