You stole my far away kingdom
didn't say what for?
Said I didn't have the jurisdiction
to grapple my own crown
The ice resurrects steely bacteria
will our antibiotics endure?
I feel all elephantine
the piper is never paid
My foot prints are all asunder
on ancient sanded dunes
My ship is sinking
The troubadour sings
The innkeeper perilously on the cliff yelps
some erratum does he detect
over there..>
lost time leaking away
collapse not into temptation
grant me/us peaceful solitude
deliver us/me from erratum
inert/confined/lost
entangled in a weary knot
buried in dusty debris
suffocated by icy cobwebs
burned & frozen
begging for deliverance
longing for liberation
yearning to be untangled
thunder over water
deliverance?
lost life leaking into the past
<..over here
Mightily buoyed by cherished blood,
Brazen struts laxest wit undeterred;
And fair nobles her giddy vinos swill
Oftener than mild sips of ironed skill.
Sometimes charmed by gilded gold
Slack sense glues tighter than truth,
Icing to death the latter's warm hold,
Though it be sharp as reptile’s tooth.
Frequent wins heresy’s easy path
Grand crystalline Heaven’s wrath,
And fleeting mirths procured thus
At last become unmitigated curse.
Subtly hallowed by saint and priest
Sneaks warped reason’s sliest gist,
Oiled by figures on oaths deponed,
Sentinels of truth in bold ink toned.
Featherweight thinking finally weds
Strictest law under unspoken knots;
Neutering the former’s diabolic beds,
Desecrating the other's stern courts.
ERRATUM DOMINI
There must have been some terrible mistake!
A fault in records or in time continuum
Check my birth cert. for a counterfeit or fake!
They got wrong the name or date at very minimum
True I recall sleep in Morrison shelter for a duration
Ration books, powdered eggs and friend: ‘Al’ the young GI
But perhaps that was in a previous incarnation
To account for so much time passing by
Told my mental age and acts are immature
Though the body has moved on a way ahead
My taste in music ends round 1994
And I like retiring early to my bed
But I’ve so much still to learn and yet to do
I’m not ready to tell the grim reaper: “welcome here!”
So it must be a non-fatal misconstrue
That I’m rapidly approaching my umptieth year
The Grammar Years
On that train an hour ago,
though he did not see me,
I saw a teacher I had years ago,
a proper man was he
who in the margins of my papers
wrote short sermons in a script
so perfect and so neat
they looked like samplers.
But on that train an hour ago
I glowed in exultation when I saw
his index finger pluck
a small erratum from his nose.
Donal Mahoney
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