MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE Iconic sleeve art for Pink Floyd Displays a triangular chunk of glass Alone on a black background, Dramatically separating a thin straight beam Into its constituent colours. The rainbow spectrum. Inert matter sawed, releasing More inside than meets the eye. A sacred structure built in Rome, B.C., Was named The […]
HILL 880 (Irish UN position South Lebanon) Tonight, senses steeled against the black sky, we listen for the warring shadows. The storm is almost upon us. Bursts of coloured tracer attack the hill, bouncing over lost horizons. Phosphorous lights explode, illuminating battered landscapes of death. Below the thunder they cower in the dancing veil […]
Wing beats of a wild duck Startled by my unlit prescence Drum into my consciousness A moment framed in time. I am again before a dark city lake On a winter’s evening Behind me the half-heard sound Of Hamburg’s traffic. Before me an emptiness of water And space, unfilled by you.
Fred Astaire When I was nineteen I laughed At what I heard people call your “Art”. Art! Like Joyce or Jean Paul Sarte? No. I had you firmly in a bracket. Somewhere between Elvis Presley And Bob Cratchet. But when I was thirty-eight And it was a wet Sunday afternoon And the pubs were shut. […]
TREAD SOFTLY It’s raining, always is, that sticky hazy rain that gets down your neck, behind your ears and saturates your face, your hair as soon as you step from the vehicle even though the uniform is multilayered, your boots get soggy straight away and the pistol grip on the rifle resting in your arms […]
KEEPER OF THE GROOVES For P.McL. It crept up out of the blue Long after I first listened To the affable bluff and ardour That wafted in spurts on air. An above-par package Between hand-picked tracks. Whatever. Then we were introduced In a not-as-we-know-it Academy Assembled to watch a retro Androgynous doll or two Dance […]
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. […]
Just Another False Alarm When the Mayan Long Count Calendar Dating centuries beetles to a close, Rumours run rife over earth That the end of the world is upon us. Apocalyptic forecasts spring up, old hat; Nostradamus freely dangled his doomsdays, And lesser renowned local seers year after year Deign to persuade with revelations of […]
The Tide Silver bodies float on the surface driftwood- reflecting sun. Soldiers fish with hand grenades as shadow birds cluster flying on white sands under water. I stand on the feet of my shadow arms outstretched – resting on a still sea, bearing no weapons, the tide is undecided. Identity disks hang from […]
Child of Industry Am I here now, reclining or back? Coke can cup in the cul-de-sac Cold fog, January smog, cough at the door Mum watching the clock, curfew at four Full of industry we eye the estate Send word back to cool the plate It’s early yet for mince and lies Let’s scale […]
