Farmageddon

A sad reflection

on our treatment

of animals.

Farmageddon

Because a pig

Had caught the flue

From eating meat

For me and you

To save what's past

Its sell by date

They made

The countryside

A grate.

Much better

If they'd vacinate

The Leprechauns

That run the state.

Photograph: Westminster from

Across the Thames.

Notice Given

A poem about

the beginning

Of the end.

For some?

Notice Given

The Y-Detector Vans

Were out last night

Checking for spectacles.

Drag Hunting

Some redundant

Feature

Out on a limb

Whose time was up

Hugging the curves.

Stretching

The best of them

Fit for anything

When the x-rays

Picked him up

Running on empty.

All over them he was

Genes in tatters

Privates biting

The hand that fed them.

A close shave

And a pair of high heels

And he could have made it

But they had him

In the end.

Photograph: The railway station at

Gormanston Co.Meath

Summer 2007.

Shacked Up

Shacked Up

Designs on it

From the beginning

The quick fix.

Take care of planning

The suits,

Shoes off at the door.

Not too much interest.

The bare look

About the place,

The gifts

Considerations,

Like the angle of repose

The maintenance.

A promise of

You scratch my back

And I'll scratch yours.

The joints everywhere

The soft pile,

Main bedroom upstairs

A big rip-off!

Went septic in the end.

The house

That Jerry built. Photograph Top: The River Delvin where it enters the sea at Gormanston.

Forecast

Forecast

I swear another age
Of this reason
Will see the end of us.

The soothsayers
Will be there
On the last night
Clutching a copy
Of Dead Certainty
The proofs outweighing
The process
They condemned.

While the arbiters
Of right and wrong
Tie
Their purse strings
Around our neck
On the promise of
A new order
Witch hunting.

And all you can
Hope for
Is that they'll burn
Themselves out
And you don't
Get caught on
The wrong side.

Photograph: A winter scene
Kilmessan
Co. Meath.

Tally Ho!

"That which makes us common to

rather than that which separates

us from the worst of nature"

Hunting.

Tally Ho!

A motley bunch

Of out of sorts

With horse and hound

To pass for sport.

Made entertainment

Of an ill

Called it the least cruel

Way to kill.

And didn't realise

The choice

Was just another

Kind of vice.

Is that an argument

That's sound!

The morals here

Have gone to ground.

Photograph: Bridge over the river

Blackwater/Lough Ramor

Virginia Co. Cavan. 2007

A Humour of Sorts.

A humour of sorts probably best describes the next few poems. A little bit of satire, that maybe contains a grain of truth, or perhaps even more than that. Anyway please enjoy.

A Swindlers' List

Shopping Malls

And motorways

Their midriffs almost bare

You can see these celtic tigers

Leaving skid marks everywhere.

The party's over

Ebbing away.

Flood reports on the radio

Only traffic jam today.

Bush fires breaking out

A profit warning call.

Bears loose in the marketplace

Start up disks

To stop it all.

Nice work if you can get it

And you're welfare's guaranteed

The other side of midnight's

Cattle class in A/E.

And it doesn't really matter

Coz they're waiting to enlist

Out there in the cutbacks

The names on swindlers' list.

Photograph: A fairy bush?

The Hill Of Tara

Co. Meath. 2007.

Red Lights

Red Lights

Cat calls

From doorways

Under neon

Like winter sun

Sirens

In the night.

Stealing

The moment

A cold sign

Catching the eye.

Nothing for nothing.

Photograph: Old Church and Graveyard

Hill of Skryne, 2007.