{"id":6053,"date":"2019-12-08T20:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T20:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=6053"},"modified":"2019-12-08T20:00:48","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T20:00:48","slug":"poetry-daniel-wade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2019\/12\/08\/poetry-daniel-wade\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry \u2013 Daniel Wade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rooftop Blues<\/strong><\/p>\n

I could go for a quick smoke on the roof,
\nthe steel vent pipe snaking
\nits lobed edges toward the window,
\nhear the incidental music of engines snarl up
\nfrom Richmond Street, relentless as diesel.                    
\nMaybe, just maybe, I see people for what we are
\nand want no part in it? Spilled lighter fluid,
\na puddle of technicolour, swirls like marbled
\npaper where a lit match was dropped, and where
\nflames now spasm. A dove, olive branch
\ngripped in its beak, is shot down by tracer-bullet
\nin the lull of sundown, and, like me, bouncers
\nlight up down laneways. Beats from a DJ throb
\nfrom an emergency exit to remind me that escape
\nis no longer possible, not now, then or ever,
\nand that I am moored, permanently, to here.                           <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rope Jockey <\/strong><\/p>\n

A text from the agency tells me
\nwhen and where to be
\nand what tools to have on-site
\n(though I know that already):
\nharness and gloves, high-viz
\nand hard hat. On the Luas,
\nI watch Dublin hunker in March rain,
\nher blue-black skyline tightened like a toolbelt
\nand head into the site at 7 on the dot,
\nwith an Americano
\nfrom Frank and Honest
\nand a heart attack sandwich
\n(that\u2019s a breakfast roll to you)
\nto keep me going.
\nThe site is knotted, impassable as a jungle:
\na cluster of skeletal cranes loom
\nin the sky, statically iron,
\nset in stone or steel, balanced against all weather,
\njibs shredding cloud as the wind\u2019s high grip
\nrattles through bony lattice
\nand chain-sling as they slowly swivel
\nto lift granite slabs to the roof:
\npulleys and outriggers and bolts set in a concrete base,
\nconcrete vomited from mixers, giant rust-
\nscuffed boxes stacked high
\nwith rollers and chains, corrugated ridges.
\nI wonder how soon it\u2019ll be
\nbefore funding gets pulled and it\u2019s left derelict,
\nnot even a quarter of the way finished:
\nthe rich weight of industry, injurious as scorn. 
\nSecretly, I\u2019m grateful for the job,
\nthat I get to work on this building
\ndestined to be a hotel
\nor some tech firm\u2019s HQ,
\nI.D. card swinging and bleeping me in,
\nmy serial number memorised like girl\u2019s name.
\nRung by rung, I climb 
\nas if towards heaven, past girders and I-beams
\nslung low in ruled, russet mesh,
\nmy wings soaked in caffeine and blood,
\nnumb to the view 
\nnestling far below me, steel-grey morass
\nof roofs and webbed pavements, traffic
\nan arterial drip-feed. I sit in the cab controls
\nlike a pilot becalmed in mid-air,
\ngrip the levers and manoeuvre the crane into life,
\nharnessing it to come \u2018round full circle,
\nas if in slow motion
\nwith a conclusive thud. Load follows load,
\nlb follows lb, and I\u2019ll do
\nas many as thirty, forty lifts a day
\nif I have to, the back jib
\nand counterweight locked in their waltz,
\n\u2019til a voice on the radio confirms:
\n\u201cYeh, she\u2019s all clear, boss.\u201d
\nAnd time isn\u2019t measured by my watch
\nbut by the rise and sink of the sun,
\na solar disk in tiled and black in slow hurtle
\nacross the glass cages,
\nreddening my face by degrees. It\u2019s mad
\nhow dark it gets in the space of a few hours,
\nhow much the city looks like a crime scene,
\nhow unstoppable it all seems.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Daniel Wade<\/a> is a Dublin-based author. He was awarded the Hennessy prize New Irish Writing in 2015, and his poetry has appeared in over two dozen publications. Follow his progress on<\/span><\/em> Facebook<\/a>, <\/span>Instagram <\/a><\/em>and Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rooftop Blues I could go for a quick smoke on the roof, the steel vent pipe snaking its lobed edges toward the window, hear the incidental music of engines snarl up from Richmond Street, relentless as diesel.                     Maybe, just maybe, I see people for what we are and want no part in it? Spilled lighter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":6054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[202],"class_list":["post-6053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","category-uncategorized","tag-2019december"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}