strands
  • Home
  • Competitions
    • Strands International Flash Fiction Competition >
      • Results
      • Competition Judge
      • Submit
    • Water - Short Story (May 31, 2017) >
      • Results
      • Important Dates
      • Rules
    • Fire - Short Story (Nov 30, 2016) >
      • Results
      • Competition Judge
      • Important Dates
  • Contact
  • Call for Submissions
  • Lit Sphere
    • Novels >
      • Mrs. Saville by Ted Morrissey
      • Shueli's Star by Anna Sujatha Mathai
    • Poetry
    • Visual Art
    • Short Fiction
    • Creative Nonfiction
    • Reviews
    • Interviews
Strands Publishers

LIT SPHERE

Ezine

Two Poems

4/23/2020

0 Comments

 
Poetry ~ ​Alan McCormick

Keeping Close from a Distance

Escape from the viral airwaves, the incessant mantras,
the deadly numbers, the scapegoating and washing of hands,
the everyday fuzz of social media, being PA to your own dwindling life,
the bills, the shopping list, the desperate search for protection,
a cure no sanitizer nor edict can muster.
 
The two-metre stare, the cross to the other side of the road,
the masked bandits and retracted handshakes,
the burbling inside, the turbulence of bedtime waking,
the selfishness of survival, the crawling towards the light,
pleading to be saved so you might live on.
 
And yet your child sleeps, innocence in dreams wishing it all away,
your love suddenly unlocked, your meaningless chatter held at bay,
your fears now only for them, that you might save them,
that the selflessness of survival might mean keeping apart,
and you grab your moment of quiet and hold them tight.
~

What if

(For Trump, Johnson, and all who sail with them)

What if your killers clap you after they administer your lethal injection?
What if your leaders build and sell the bombs that fall onto your town?
What if they drink the rivers dry and fill the sky with lead and poison?
What if they profit from death and share the spoils amongst themselves?
What if they knew the plague was coming and took no decisive action?
What if the people who were blamed and sacrificed rise up to take over?
What if the love between them and for the world becomes the new way of life?
Well, then there would be less need of leaders, and the earth might breathe again.
 

Picture
Alan McCormick lives with his family by the sea in Wicklow, Ireland. He’s been writer in residence at Kingston University’s Writing School and for the charity, InterAct Stroke Support. His fiction has won prizes and been widely published, including in Salt’s Best British Short Stories, Confingo, Lakeview, and online at Words for the Wild, Strands, Dead Drunk Dublin, 3:AM and Époque Press. His collection, Dogsbodies and Scumsters, was long-listed for the 2012 Edge Hill Prize.
 
He also writes shorter pieces in response to pictures by artist, Jonny Voss. See more of this collaboration, along with Alan’s own fiction at www.alanmccormickwriting.wordpress.com


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Strands

    Fiction~Poetry~Translations~Reviews~Interviews~Visual Arts

    Archives

    November 2023
    October 2023
    July 2023
    October 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Competitions
    • Strands International Flash Fiction Competition >
      • Results
      • Competition Judge
      • Submit
    • Water - Short Story (May 31, 2017) >
      • Results
      • Important Dates
      • Rules
    • Fire - Short Story (Nov 30, 2016) >
      • Results
      • Competition Judge
      • Important Dates
  • Contact
  • Call for Submissions
  • Lit Sphere
    • Novels >
      • Mrs. Saville by Ted Morrissey
      • Shueli's Star by Anna Sujatha Mathai
    • Poetry
    • Visual Art
    • Short Fiction
    • Creative Nonfiction
    • Reviews
    • Interviews