Skip to main content

From Muineachán to Naarm

 

From Muineachán to Naarm

 

Kavanagh’s Great Hunger indeed

Moves a lonely man to tears

Not a farmer, me

But a gardener of concrete, heart & steel

Choppers fly over

& rev down Lygon Street

The wail of sirens

& I am cold

Yesterday evening, skint at the bar

I spontaneously sighed “thank God for women”

& finally my algorithm shifted

From male sport to female play

Arundati Roy, Toni Morrison, Sylia Plath

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Twice the poet of her droll husbands

On this we agree the genders are scared

Scared of violence

Scared of humiliation

Scared of real intimacy

But is it fear or shame that make it so hard to be loved?

& so Patrick Kavanagh & often enough me when I’m not high or drunk

Turns the clay like “a mechanised scarecrow”

In the hope of a potato

Or a pint of porter

Lonely yet lightened by the fertile imagination

Stirred miraculously by certain women in their 60s

Though older she’s compassionate & brave

In both categories a-roving has me meet her

So that neither is tethered to another like a slave

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2025.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

‘The Garden of Love’

  ‘The Garden of Love’ (after William Blake)   Some young punk Tryin to be ‘hard’ Pussyole! with his mate Said “no flowers!” I was holding some wildflowers To put in my vase at the apartment I asked him “why not?” He said nothing That’s right keep walking bish! To bloodclot! I don’t walk around defensive So I’m not quick to attack I’d rather they think about it themselves ‘Without flowers there is no life’ He dreams Try that on for size ‘You say “no!” to flowers & you say “no!” to life’ Echoed on the wind 'You can’t eat money!' Unity & Devision He hears across the wires 'Not that way!... ... why have you forsaken us?' He feels the ancestors   & again I am reminded of Blake’s ‘The Garden of Love’*   Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2025.   * The Garden of Love By  William Blake I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, W...

'Punk' Sociology (Participant Observation)

  'Punk' Sociology (Participant Observation)   I’m chilling back at home, now Needed a spliff This is in no way definitive I couldn’t see quite a lot even though I was near the front Once things came to a stand off I didn’t see much of ‘the enemy’ We were prevented from seeing one another Just the guttural roars of “BOO!” from the blood lusters at their front I saw the name of Jesus on a sign Which made about as much sense as the lot of nonsense Man I’d taken Eucharist in the morning prior Of a divided people Their upside down Aussie flags turned up the right way just after we were turned back down Collins St from the corner of Elizabeth Street & the capsicum spray – not too bad Young blokes love a stoush As do female inquisitors The Safran thing strange After his legendary decades & he was ‘shot down’ as a ‘Zionist’ for taking on the Fascists with his dynamic holy wit Very strange I grew up with partition Nothing intellectual about it It’s IN you Thoug...

Apology for an evil word (draft)

  Apology for an evil word   by Malachi Doyle   I wrote/drew/painted this art book in Respekt for the child soldiers in Australia the British Empire AmiKKKa & of course Momma Afrika The French German Italian Dutch Spanish Empires Jesus Asia The Middle East South America Central America The Carribbean The Pacific Islands The former USSR countries The former Yugoslavian countries… My Nation’s & the world’s Asylum Seekers Child Detention Centres & the World’s poor country city neglected homeless  abused persecuted ignored ridiculed dismissed forgotten the murdered & raped mutilated totured  the beaten those who suffer the effects of Authoritarian & ‘soft’ Tyrannies skooling shitstems & other corrupt institutions Corporations in short the Vampires who suck “Earth Mother’s Women’s Child”rens’ blood,   I can’t express how I don’t wanna eat I have lost my appetite I wish ...