The spiders in the corners are my guards. They hang from webs, long legs gripping strands, sensing every quiver of my nerves. Somewhere out there are the other rooms where the lives I might have led are locked while the many people I might have been stand in corridors and pound on doors. My spinning… Continue reading House Arrest
Tag: poetry
EYEWITNESS OF THE INVISIBLE
A homeless moon lingers over the town. I linger with it, both of us bracing for single combat with oblivion at the crossroads where silence is spoken. I was interrogated once again during the night but betrayed only myself. I want to believe in the future and in life’s rosy emptiness, but shadows block my… Continue reading EYEWITNESS OF THE INVISIBLE
Two Poems
Two poems just published in issue 201 of Orbis. The first one is about the gulls we know who live on the roofs around us; like dogs and cats, they all have different personalities once you get to know them. The second poem is about my father in Australia. DINOSAURS ON THE ROOFFor the gulls of… Continue reading Two Poems
Two Irish Poems
Two poems just published in the An Aítiúil anthology. The theme was Ireland, so my poems are about what it means to me to return to live in Ireland generations after my family left. ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY YEARSCarrowbehy Bog A lot has happened in five generations,but nothing can have changed between these hillsthat have… Continue reading Two Irish Poems
Three Poems
THIRD VIEW OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS Central India, 1 BC You must have watched so many battlesdawn, Trishanku.And you know what it meansto want too much;I’m hanging upside downbetween the earthI took for grantedand the sky I dreamed of reaching.I’ve never feared the rolling dice of war,but the wheel of lifeis spinning backwards now, Trishanku. Low Tide… Continue reading Three Poems
On the Famine Way and Phase Change
Two recently published poems today. The first one is part of a series exploring what it means for me to have returned to live in Ireland generations after my family left. The Famine Way is a long stretch of road leading from Strokestown in Roscommon (where my family came from) to Dublin. In the 1840s… Continue reading On the Famine Way and Phase Change
Blight Weather
Today’s poem refers to the Potato Blight, a fungus which attacks potatoes and contributed to the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s. Even today, the weather forecast talks about “Blight Weather”, which is unusually warm and humid for Ireland, as those are the conditions in which the fungus thrives. I have connected this with… Continue reading Blight Weather
Return to Roscommon
So much was lost in the leaving, in the shuffle of feet to the sea and the coughs below decks, lost in the squinting at unimagined sunlight and the sting of feet on burning sand; so much I can never regain. Right now I could be stepping on hungry grass that cannot harm because unknown… Continue reading Return to Roscommon
Voyage of the Iceberg
VOYAGE OF THE ICEBERG Australian Antarctic Territory, midsummer Now evening’s wearing midday’s face. Our floating time capsule, sparkling and popping, is shoving through the flimsy sea ice. I now feel Gondwanan voices simmering beneath my feet; every rising bubble of air that gouges our tall ship’s sides carries off a puff of history. The penguins… Continue reading Voyage of the Iceberg
Four Poems
OLD TESTAMENT PLAGUES IN NEW MILLENNIUM CITY Inboxes swarm with junk mail locusts. Flies of stress buzz in corridors and settle in meeting rooms. Silicone boils gather and a collagen plague sweeps the cattle markets. Viruses pulsate through electronic veins and erupt on traders’ screens. The rivers of the underground run red with anger. No… Continue reading Four Poems
S.C. Flynn 