Dublin, 2015 Four hours after his head gets kicked in, he’s wheeled into the A&E on a gurney. Splayed, supine, he looks like a crash test dummy; blood soils his tracksuit. Only the saliva oozing from his lower lip tells them he is human. His breathing is shallow but steady, hence why none of the … Read more
Tribute Acts Each witch hunt is a tribute act to the last. There is always a committee of three. The gravity in the room is such they struggle to manoeuvre the enormity of their serious faces in the door. Except in the TV version, there is hardly ever a microphone. Though they will usually give … Read more
By the time I got to Lenny’s place he was pacing up and down out front; his unusually frantic movement a poor advertisement for the stuff he was peddling; the stuff I was there to collect. He had his navy blue Boy Scout shorts on with a sleeveless t-shirt that allowed tanned biceps to stick … Read more
The First Obscenity Before we turned our eyes from nudity, Or banished certain words, death was the first Obscenity—the one from which the rest, In time, would find their way. The first To make a joke of life. The first To show us what may come of children’s games: A skull left caked in mud, … Read more
The Joke after Walter Benjamin A barrel of industrial waste poured into a suit donated by a casino owner who knows people with a tangerine tea towel tossed strategically on top because it was the only available metaphor for hair was running for re-election as CEO of South Canadia against an old coat with holes … Read more
Spolia Opima Models, slender and famished as cheetahs, Shed their imperial haute couture— Already in sweatpants, they hail their cabs Behind the Grand Palais before Applause dies down inside around The vacant runway. Afternoon sunlight’s Lambent overhead on friezes of Lutetian Limestone. Violinists grimace at their scores— Haydn, Hollywood, the B’s and Broadway hits, Rehearsal … Read more
Medea’s Hymn from Ovid O guardian of the dark, keeper of creeping shadows, o night I’m standing in… And you, timid stars, who wait for her arrival to shine… And you, Hecate, Hecate, Hecate, who knows and keeps the herbal secrets, the potion’s potency, the rites of sorcery… And you, Earth, who grows the elements, … Read more
“Rrruth…Ruuuth…Ruthhh…Are you ok?” Her voice echoed, in ripples, wave after wave. Outside an open window, fronds of the palm tree danced. “Are you Ok? Here, Ruth. Drink that.” A pair of green birds chased each other flew past the Chinaberry tree. Laughing or fighting, their feathers were a lighter green against its dark leaves. I … Read more
When Henry Kissinger again fails to die Another tree in the Central Highlands loses all its leaves A girl sits on a visiting diplomat’s lap Someone organises a Nelson Rockefeller look-alike party which Henry Kissinger attends An election result somewhere is declared null and void for its own good An interrogating officer switches on the … Read more
Gasping for a hit, Carl made himself a fresh cup of coffee. But big-nosed and bat-eared, when he tried to slam it, the steaming brown liquid dribbled down his chin to piddle over his pink tie and white shirt. His accountant’s uniform. ‘Fuck!’ He’d forgotten the stitch-up already. His lips weren’t even that sore. His … Read more