Anatomy of a Public Outcry

Anatomy of a Public Outcry

Those with short, uncommented upon hair

but exquisite tax returns, cannot forgive

you being regularly mistaken

for Jesus, or the lead singer in

Poison.

The ninety eighth caller

to Four FM’s Hour of Complaint

wants you publicly garrotted in, preferably,

New Ross for allegedly eating risotto

at inappropriate hours of the day.

The little guy, once caught

having a wardrobe malfunction

with a tender and merciful

rent boy, wants your big pink shirt

declared illegal

under the strict new dress code

he spends his afternoons dreaming up.

The Times and Daily Mail agree:

when the Irish team concede

that third shattering goal,

or it rains in Mayo

for the fourth consecutive day,

it’ll officially

be all your fault.

Kevin Higgins facilitates poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre; teaches creative writing at Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words programme. He is also Writer-in-Residence at Merlin Park Hospital and the poetry critic of the Galway Advertiser. He was a founding co-editor of The Burning Bushliterary magazine. His first collection of poems The Boy With No Face was published by Salmon in February 2005 and was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award. His second collection, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in March 2008 by Salmon. One of the poems from Time Gentlemen, Please, ‘My Militant Tendency’, featured in the Forward Book of Poetry 2009. His work also features in the anthology Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). Frightening New Furniture is his third collection of poems and was published in 2010 by Salmon Poetry. Kevin has read his work at most of the major literary festivals in Ireland and at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in Kansas City, USA (2006), Los Angeles, USA (2007), London, UK (2007), New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011) & Canberra, Australia (2011). As part of his Culture Ireland supported trip to Chicago in February 2009 he participated in and took first place in a specially arranged poetry slam at the Chicago’s Green Mill Bar and Lounge, the birthplace of slam poetry. Kevin’s fourth collection of poetry, The Ghost In The Lobby, will be published by Salmon Poetry in 2013. Kevin is co-organiser of Over The Edge literary events. Mentioning The War, a collection of his essays and reviews is just published by Salmon.

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Kevin Higgins

Latest posts by Kevin Higgins (see all)

• Ode To The Minister For State Security - May 23, 2013
• Alternative Proposals - April 22, 2013
• Chairman, Galway West Labour Youth, April 5th, 1984 - October 5, 2012
• Anatomy of a Public Outcry - June 13, 2012
• Son of Capitalism - May 14, 2012