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Cut-Price Poetry

Why am I drawn
to this scowling girl
selling her poems
in a Shinjuku underpass?

Every Tuesday she is here,
next to a Nikon ad,
threatening commuters
with her cyclostyled angst.

Busy people keep up
with the times,
do a tap dance
on their smartphones.

Only drunks buy poetry.
Grubbing for their last,
sweaty coins, they
mock her with every purchase.


First published in Eclectica Magazine

Copyright © Alan Ireland | Year Posted 2017

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Michael Maul Date: 7/30/2025 9:00:00 AM This is a very good piece of writing Login to Reply Alan Ireland Date: 7/31/2025 12:41:00 AM Thank you. I wrote a few good pieces about 10 years ago -- before the Christchurch mosque shootings (a hoax) and Covid (a scam) came along to distract me.

John Fleming Date: 7/30/2025 4:49:00 AM Absolutely brilliant!!! Why this poem did not get the acholades it most rightfully does deserve, from people here on this site anyways, is just beyond me. What an awesome and towering piece of genius you have penned here, Alan. Staggering poetry. :) john Faved! Login to Reply Alan Ireland Date: 7/31/2025 12:35:00 AM Thank you for those kind words. I've got a few more pieces, all published in good magazines, that I'll post here when I have time.

Darlene De Beaulieu Date: 3/19/2025 10:01:00 AM Hello Alan Ireland, they should not have mocked her. It was a wrong thing todo. If a person likes her poetrhy and they are not drunk, they should not mock her. Enjoy your day my friend. /Darlene/ Login to Reply

Patricia Cresswell Date: 8/12/2017 9:39:00 AM A vivid picture painted with your words. It puts me there and as a poet may heart reaches out to her. What whirlwind of emotions created by this scene. I will come back to read it and your other work because it touches me and that is talent. Login to Reply Alan Ireland Date: 8/12/2017 5:54:00 PM Thanks, Pat. Actually, the "girl" was a young married woman with a couple of kids. She became quite well known, as a Japanese weekly magazine ran an article on her.

Alan Ireland Date: 4/10/2017 3:23:00 AM This poem was first published in Eclectica Magazine. Login to Reply