A Pork Belly’s Fence Back Fires
A pork belly’s fence back fires
(In sympathy with Michael ‘Stroke’ Fahy)
The poor créatúr,
he’s the only one
you’d ever see
down my road.
Sure what harm
had he done,
only taking
what he could get-
wouldn’t any of us
have done the same.
Now the divil,
does his dirty work
not in the chamber
but in his chamber pot.
Once they caught him
he gave all the money back,
credit where credit is due.
The whole council
applauded his return
despite his convictions,
they kept theirs,
having voted
in good faith
to keep him on
the pay roll-
but that’s little
to him
and his months
in exile;
there’s nothing sadder
than a king deprived
of his kingdom,
but oh!
he got a royal welcome
when he came back.
It’s nice to see him
down my road again.
Charon does not take credit (Black Thursday 2010)
Four horsemen
sit snugly
in the cab
of a cement-mixer
thundering along
unfinished dual-carriage ways,
as the ghost estates
howl
for mercy
in their flooded fields;
the ferryman
steers on
through the 10 golden circles
of hell,
a chorus of obese
and red faced cherubs
cry:
“we only took
the best advice given,
we only took
the best advice given”…
Old comrades and bath water
The water turned cold
long ago
his toe
has been stuck
in the tap
his arse
is the only thing
plugging the drain.
And this is
just how he
like it:
calling his wife
(long gone),
his dog
(long dead)
and then calling them
all the names under the sun.
Finding the face cloth
among the stale bubbles
he covers his eyes.
The journey to
the dry towel
is not an option.
Liam Duffy is a student of Public and Social Policy at the National University of Ireland, Galway, where he was the editor of their Writers Society’s magazine the Sharp Review. He recently took a break from Ireland to check out the poetry scene in Finland and study at the University of Helsinki. He has most recently been published in A Hudson view, The Rain town review, the anthology Emergency verse- poetry in defence of the welfare state. and read at the West Cork Literary Festival in Ireland as part of a reading dubbed: Irish Poets: A New Generation.
Photo of an ad for Independent Fianna Fail candidate Michael ‘Stroke’ Fahy published for the 1987 General Election courtesy of Irish Election Literature.
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