Friday, 16 July 2021

Three Poems by Michael Igoe



                                            

     Shot Of A              Cannon                                                                           I swallowed that October,                                                                                                                          drenched in foreign syrup.                                                                                                                                     Yellow bellied,                                                                                                                                       even more naive.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I reluctantly recall                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          the streets detested                                                                                                                                        by culprits intent                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      on rocket launches.                                                                                                                        It’s a  penchant for travel,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              on the strength of an urge.                                                                                                           Making things easier,                                                                                                                                      as pain sears autumn.                                                                                                                                            It tends to an eruption                                                                                                                                           bargaining with rivals                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           for relics of departure.                                                                                                                    


Human Intervention

                                                 You were saying,                                                                                                                                                       making entrance:                                                                                                                                                                          -we carry baggage                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         that come from                                                                                                                                          the living years.-                                                                                                                                                                     We find meaning                                                                                                                                                                                        from living in Sin.                                                                                                                                              I’m the one who                                                                                                                                                    gave you a cornet,                                                                                                                                           but it’s been ages                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            since you let me play.                                                                                                                                                Crates filled with                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            guns kept in grease                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                belong to the Christ Child.                                                                                                                                                   You can pose with them                                                                                                                       alongside your steel guitar.                                                                                                                  


Highly Visible                                                                                          We’re living it out                                                                                                                                       in this current era                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       with a ferris wheel ticket.                                                                                                                                        Standing under the viaduct,                                                                                                                                       we pause in our grim march,                                                                                                                                                       towards the other MayDays.                                                                                                                                A hope continues,                                                                                                                                                                  for the secret vials,                                                                                                                                                              full of the evidence                                                                                                                                                   we’re searching for.                                                                                                                                          We all know Bible figures                                                                                                                                         get smashed to smithereens.                                                                                                                                      They roam beneath arches,                                                                                                                                           to plant warmth in horror                                                                                                                                            on rebel girls who sunbathe.                                                                                                                                                  


Michael Igoe, city boy, neurodiverse, Chicago now Boston. Many works appear in journals online and in print. Recent: maythornmag.art.blog, linktr.ee/spillovermagazine, agapanthuscollective.com. Anthology Inclusions(3)(Fevers of the Mind Press)@amazon.com. National Library of Poetry Editors Choice Award 1997. Twitter: MichaelIgoe5, Instagram: michael.igoe.397.



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