The Irish Poem Is

a Táin Bó, a Spring Show, a video
a trodden dream, a parish team, a tax-break scheme
a prison cell, an Angelus bell, a clientele
a brinded cow, a marriage vow, a domestic row
a tattered coat, a puck goat, a telly remote
a game of tig, a slip jig, a U2 gig
a restored tower, a Holy Hour, a pressure shower
a ticking clock, a summer frock, a shock-jock
a hazel wand, a dipping pond, a page 3 blonde
a canal bank, a returned Yank, a septic tank
a green flag, a Child of Prague, a Prada bag
a whispering sea, a Rose of Tralee, a transfer fee
a disused shed, a settle bed, a Club Med
a long strand, a céilí band, a one night stand
a ‘barbaric yawp’, a sweet shop, an alcopop
a flax dam, a high pram, an email spam
a new estate, a blind date, a security gate
a pint of plain, a lover’s lane, a place in Spain
a cold eye, a bittern cry, a heroin high
a Raglan Road, a tractor load, a Da Vinci code
a lake isle, a wooden stile, a paedophile
a night feed, a Rosary bead, a corporate greed
a lonely impulse, a bag of dulse, a fading pulse
a herring shoal, a fox stole, a death toll
a Pangur Bán, a paraffin can, a fake tan
a fire-king, a fairy ring, a bling-bling
a tickled trout, a boy scout, a ticket tout
a wild swan, a frogspawn, a roll-out lawn
a lost tribe, a Tara Street scribe, a planning bribe
a huge rose, a garden of repose, a wine nose
a hedgehog, a peat bog, a weblog
a whirlpool, a milking stool, a drug mule
a stony grey soil, a three-in-one oil, a Mrs. Doyle
a planter’s daughter, a school jotter, a mineral water
a potato pit, a banana-split, a gangland hit
a deep heart’s core, a Georgian door, a quick score
a white muslin dress, an Evening Press, an email address
a newborn lamb, a radiogram, an internet scam
a village master, a sticking plaster, a ghetto blaster
a third light, a second sight, a bungalow blight
a solitary enzyme, a closing time, an end rhyme.

from Safe House

By kind permission of the author and Dedalus Press