Breaking News

The moon will not go down again,
street lights will be on forever and drive
electricity bills into walls with no seatbelts
and cause hazardous conditions for
bill payers and passengers alike,
the smoke from arguments ignored
 – misogamy, factless beliefs, family matters –
will block the sky to black. And so be it,
you have picked your place, one of power
and persuasion and free of remorse,
springing on us every bump be it real or
otherwise in the redundant guise of breaking news,
because at this stage, what’s not left to lose?

Spare Minutes

Buy one get one free with this roll of the dice missus
you too can make the mistakes of many and
feel it as good as the first time, the beauty
of the modern corporal being is that of business
and preciousness, and with value like that
how you can never buy into this openly but
instead, in the spare minutes between gym and
death you decide sure thing I can take this route home,
find out there’s no way passed the black cortege,
foot to foot, following something to a final home,
and you just wanting to get back before the water goes off

Paul McCarrick holds an MA in Writing from NUI Galway. His poetry has been published with Dodging the Rain, Crannóg, Skylight 47, and The Stinging Fly among others.