So far I’ve been posting older poems, mostly from the 90s. This one’s the opener from my most recent book, The Resurrection of the Body at Killysuggen.
The Humours of Ballycran
‘It would bring tears to the eyes of a turnip,’ said a man in his cups
holding on for dear life to the bar in The Saltwater Brig,
‘to see the state of the roads at Six Road Ends, and the grass that grows
through the cracks in the runways of Kirkiston airbase—
though it’s many’s the long day since the last American rose
into the low skies above a derelict cottage in Ballycranbeg,
and left the field to the racing drivers and long-footed Irish hare,
the one a bestial roar, the other a whisper in long grass.
Now I’m told I’ve as much chance of kissing again—
at my age, in my condition—as there is of that crab-apple tree
sprouting nine pound notes, or nuns coming back to Nuns Quarter,
or a puma or panther stalking the hills of the County Down.
And if that came to pass, wouldn’t they scour the Low Country
with their marksmen and nets, their guns and their helicopters,
and wouldn’t the poor thing be hunted down and put to death?
So I’ll act my age,’ he said, ‘and I’ll keep my lips to myself.’
Author of four collections of poetry, the most recent, The resurrection of the Body at Killysuggen, published in June 2011 by Belfast’s Lagan Press. He blogs about his latest book on www.killysuggen.wordpress.com.
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