Niamh Bagnell
AUDIO
Messages, Pictures & Poems
A gaping gap, a sleeking sap flows down
A stainless steel tree
The waves surprise, faint shudders, sighs, frowns,
Tie in the listener —
He is frozen while a dozen slow things
Crawl over his aching bones
The noise goes on, the boys all gone
Messages, pictures and poems
Arrive daily on reflective screens
Tears glisten on shiny old cheek
The leathery skin keeps them out
Eyes bathed in punishing doubt
He keens
Memory laughs — glimpses a half — when only birds
Twittered, singing dawn joy perpetual.
And virus attacks meant hours in bed sacks
Not blank screens deader than usual. No.
And only love mattered, and real walls
were spattered with
messages, pictures and poems
_____________________________
Alien Stalker
She wants you to call her back,
alien girl with pupils so black, you’d fall in,
she’s grown an armoured scaly skin, just to fit in,
to survive and alive to show it, she knows this time’s the same,
another non-fatal laying of blame, so it goes, she’s just saying
it'd be nice if you didn't need to be told, if it occured to you without nagging
like the greeding to eat, the dawning of sleep, the dragging of feet,
if you knew it was right and without needing pay for it,
a night and a day, or a twisted bouquet for it, it was done.
Don’t be scared, she needs only your troubles and cares,
your nuts and your bolts,
your toenails and hairs,
your children and homes,
eyelashes and moans,
and breathless heart swears,
your blood and your bones,
then she’ll leave you alone.
You’ll soon see —
she’s the one
_____________________________
I’ll take
Another cup of coffee, for your sake
The mug brims — astringent — bitter — black
I slurp thick liquid, ambrosia heat,
Eat the acrid soup, the jitter gloop,
I whisper for the bill — while you wipe flat
The spilled forgotten crumbly cake
And I know I’ll be wide awake —
Thinking greasy temples, your slim waist,
The grubby spoons, mind frozen aroma — freeze dried beans
— dirt cloth wipes dirt on everything — except my dreams
_____________________________
Missing the boat
Twas long gone when I got there —
The boat, without a second glance —
It sailed.
It left me standing breathless,
almost listening to the urgent drum
inside my chest, beating, instructing me to jump,
to brave the iced choppiness.
Saying to swim the grey mile —
Telling to climb hard steel rungs along the curve —
Assuring I’d be helped aboard by a handsome sailor —
soon warmed by a hot brandy
wouldn’t regret the late attempt to catch it.
I waited on the pier
with clenched fists.
A silence slight within the storm
stilled the pounding heart
and feet firmly on the cobbled ground
I calmly watched the horizon
for the next
_____________________________
Dissappearing
Flakes of dried in sleep spit
Draw scrappy pastel clouds on your chin
You walk a confused jangled path
In a place you’ve never been
Last night insisted on one last shot
Another pint or two, then lunged at her
Hungry, on Fitzsimons’ window couch
Devoured her thin lips with You
Under the spot light, in deepest night on show, where models belong
You bought the doughy hot dog thing, she licking ketchup finger
And it felt like a jelly song.
Home, her bedroom pink, fake jewels on every door
Thin finger nails stroke your sucked in belly
Your boxers on the floor
Her hair no longer looking like
Like it was specially drawn
You’re walking blind to where she said you’d find a bus back into town
No attempt to prolong this thing
You’re adults,
Without
A knowing of names
She saw you off
With just a towel on
No “fond” farewell
You walked on out
No shake of hands
You’re gone
_____________________________
Frisco Hill
I travelled there on Flower Power of the web
Saw tangled wires, strands threaded in the sparkling haze
At end of sight there rose a gleaming rush of gold
Picture world topped by brow of testing hill
A pair broke through the softened butter glaze of road
Their point of crossing blessed by a yellow tree
A man and dog I'll never get to meet
I saw them walking though
Perhaps they're walking still
