A Jackdaw Sings Read online

  © 2010 JIM O'LEARY

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

  reproduced in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic

  or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or

  information storage and retrieval systems—without the prior

  written permission of the author.

  ISBN: 978-1-908024-08-4

  A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the

  National Library.

  Published by ORIGINAL WRITING LTD., Dublin, 2010.

  Printed in Great Britain by MPG Books Group,

  Bodmin and Kings Lynn

  RE-BIRTH

  A scent of fear

  but knowing no fear

  or knowing no need for fear,

  I floated in embryo

  en-wombed in a swim for life.....

  ..... I was a miracle,

  a wonder of the world,

  I know that now.

  Creation manifest in me

  a Master’s touch, whatever called;

  No chipped technology ever had such skill;

  My parents did,

  embraced,

  split the atom, so to speak,

  and made me;

  Now they’re gone

  and I must live with memories.

  I was a wonder once

  close to drowning and then born,

  a miracle, I know that now,.......

  ............................How have I done?

  BITS & PIECES

  A DREAM...

  Golden strands

  Flowing

  Past shoulders

  To her waist

  Almost

  Shimmer

  In a passion-

  -Flow embrace

  Begging for

  Response,

  She looked,

  Did she

  Or was she

  Thinking,

  Smiling,

  Wondering

  Perhaps,

  Or not

  But she looked

  And smiled

  Or did she

  And was I

  There at all,.....

  ......I wonder!

  BRING GRAN!

  Stranded hair,

  ridged face,

  frayed legs,

  the old lady

  tensed her way

  through a family

  holiday meal

  of three generations

  in Blarney,

  County Cork,

  Ireland

  and I wondered

  who the outing was really for!

  C’EST LA VIE!

  I came

  When Fate allowed

  And left the past behind;

  I looked

  Accross the wall

  And saw a stone-way through;

  I stepped

  Over the wall

  And landed

  In a heap of shit;

  I came

  And saw

  And stepped

  And wanted to go back

  But I was stuck again!

  CASABLANCA

  Shag off, you asshole,

  The stage is mine

  And the piano is for Sam

  As in the film;

  If you don’t,

  I’ll play your death

  In Casablanca,

  An end-song,

  Play it again, Sam;

  Beat the keys

  And flap your fingers,

  Sit at the piano

  Like a tin-pan alley-man

  Playing a tune of death,

  A distant drum,

  A song for me and Sam

  And I am there

  In black and white,

  A dream,

  And we’re all dead

  But I will watch the film again!

  DEEP BREATH

  “Kitchen help wanted,

  apply within”,

  the piece of paper

  in the window said;

  the restaurant was Italian

  and posh enough,

  too posh for him

  in his track-suit bottoms

  and flip-flops,

  but he went in;

  his gut quivered

  as he faced the place,

  the waitress and an alien menu

  daunting him for a second;

  he funked

  the application

  for a while

  and ordered lunch

  to help his cause...

  ...and then he asked.

  CANCER

  She fought the battle and the war

  And I looked on from the beginning;

  I never knew

  There was a war

  Only a battle;

  The question-mark

  With no solution

  Arrived unwarned

  With unrelenting haste

  And hunger

  Discounting her at will

  And me;

  I watched

  Unarmed to meet the test

  Took no part in the battle

  Merely looked

  It seemed forever.....

  ........then she lost the war.

  E.T.

  I heard the rumble in the distant night

  And wondered;

  It was strange

  No plane could make that noise

  And this is not the San Andreas fault

  So there’s no earthquake coming;

  The sound came close,

  The ringing in my ears

  Became a turbined pressure

  Singling out my mind

  From room and body

  Taking over consciousness;

  My first thought was to say

  It can’t be them.

  Why did I think so.

  What a stupid nightmare;

  Then I lifted from the chair

  And floated

  To an endless dream with them.

  ALCOHOLISM

  It’s alright

  I’ll have

  another

  one

  Tonight,

  Just one

  And then

  I’ll go to bed

  for now!

  DON'T FORGET THE PEOPLE!

  Walk on the path of fortune to the end of emptiness;

  run to the bank of hope, a misguided dream;

  take a journey to the world with the promise of its trappings

  and the winds of time will tell the story of a failed endeavour.

  Take the path of Freedom

  on a People journey-dream

  and a tempered doing;

  walk on the fringe of Hope

  and forgotten Dreams

  and the Sun-face of the World will turn;

  give

  and the dream-face of the World,

  of Real People,

  will return the coin;

  stay

  with the Heart and Soul of you,

  of Value,

  and the Real-World will live,.....

  .....where is the human-world without the Human?

  HAPPY PEOPLE,......NOW?

  Set in the fall-below

  Of a world-decline,

  A couple spar for another day;

  Sleep is lost

  In a desperate

  Scream for ease

  But nothing comes,

  The power-boys

  Have had their way;

  No room to move,

  He shoves, she shifts

  To find a glimpse of light,

  A glimmer even,

  That will soften

  Their tomorrow

  But the lads,

  The biggest guns around,r />
  Have stripped

  The cupboard bare......

  .....Slowly in a wearying world,

  They sink

  Through a quagmire of despair

  Where life cannot be kept intact

  And happy disappears

  Into a chasm.

  HONK OFF!

  The nose is a strange appliance,

  a projection of flesh

  picking its way

  and leading its bearer

  on a preoccupation

  with an idle finger;

  “He’s having a pick”,

  they’d say,

  pretending not to look

  but unable to resist

  his enjoyment,.......

  .......they do it too!

  HOOKER

  “Fuck off....

  ...What do you think I am?”

  She knocked

  On the car window

  Others lingered

  Posed on the street,

  Exposed;

  “Do you want.....”

  “What” I asked, not hearing

  as I opened the car window;

  “Do you.....I have a place nearby”.

  I look to side and back,

  The car in front has moved,

  I move a few feet,

  Not more.

  “I’m clean and cheap” she said,

  “and I’ll go with you now”;

  I look again

  To left and right and back

  Who knows me here;

  If she sits in

  Who’ll know

  But what about my car,

  The hidden cameras, maybe,

  And the other drivers;

  I look again,

  Head down to hide my face,

  Take off my steaming glasses,

  Ask how much

  And quickly take her in......

  .........Fuck them!

  DRAGGING FEET IN THE HEAT

  Footsore

  In a City jungle

  I looked at my feet

  And wondered

  If they were meant

  For this;

  Morning

  Was a good time

  But the mid-day Sun

  Crept through my veins

  And gorged my energy;

  I was spent

  Before I started,

  A crippling trek

  Was more

  than I could face,

  So I sidled

  Back to the hotel

  And went to sleep!

  SPECIAL NEEDS IN THE RESTAURANT

  Nowhere, or else not here,

  The boy, a welcome spasm-attack

  On the shabby fitters-in,

  Put his simple imagination

  To a riddle foody-test

  As those shitty-people

  Posed at a party-plan

  And rehearsed their precious world;

  The boy, an embrace of Mam,

  Sprang here and there

  With eyes that did not look

  But with enthusiastic grace

  Took the whole world

  In his limit-look

  A manifest

  Of his affliction

  And enlightened

  A bewildered world

  With his grasp of reality,

  The wonder-boy was real!

  ITS ALL THE ONE

  I wanted to be

  The one

  Who carried

  Cowdung on my shoes

  Into the Four-Star Restaurant

  But I didn’t

  And I brought my friends

  Instead for dinner......

  ,,,,,,SHIT.

  KEEP IT FOR YOURSELF!

  A dog-shit landed

  On the beach

  And the dog-man

  Walked away;

  Dog Shit,

  I hear a scream

  Unheard by him

  As he left for home;

  Don’t shit on the beach, dog,

  For me or anyone,

  Take it home for the dog-man

  To embrace;

  It is yours and his, not mine

  And not for me

  Or for the beach,.....

  .....Shit athome , please!

  LAST ORDERS

  He squeezed

  the last drop,

  spat and pissed

  enjoying the process;

  Pissed,

  the thought

  became

  a sobering glimpse

  of sanity

  but he pressed on

  and puked

  to make more space

  and later

  pissed for pain

  and squeezed the last drop,

  spat

  and hoped for more,...

  ....he was the last to leave alone!

  MALE MENOPAUSE

  He sits

  And travels in his mind,

  Beautiful faces haunting him

  Young faces drawing him

  To interludes of emotion

  None complete

  But each with promise,

  Vague,

  And still he sits alone;

  He is free

  But bound unfree

  And yearning

  For lost-time fulfilled

  He travels,

  Mind unbound,

  Through stretches of imagined

  And complete consuming

  And, without the fetter

  Of a dulled emotion

  Chaining him,

  Makes love

  Without the love

  To be still free.

  MURDER ON THE MED

  I sat by the pool,

  Something I rarely do,

  And viewed the rock-face

  Leaning upward to its edge;

  At the top, I saw a couple,

  Young-entwined

  but somehow prickly,

  Sharp-words coming

  In the breeze,

  Floating down to me below;

  He, a swarthy

  Sallow-colour,

  Held her arm,

  His eyes on her

  Enthralled with spite

  Coupled for a second

  Or so with hers

  To press to her

  His need,

  Then I saw him push;

  She fell the distance

  To the rock below

  Yards from my face,

  A shocking thump,

  Then he was gone

  And she and I were left alone!

  PARTY TIME

  Party time

  Screams abounding

  Lapses waiting to embrace

  The limpid drunken forms

  Of a world in sickness

  And the People wait

  For the Puking

  Sick to come;

  In the dark light

  Waiting moment

  Settled people

  Wait to take their bait

  But, alight with flame,

  Their dung-breath dream

  Of sodden shots

  Regurgitates

  And chokes alive

  Their menace;

  Snuggled down

  In an adept cover-space,

  Home-based Party-People

  Who know the form

  Slam the window, close the blind

  And leave their sick to them;

  The night is a dark place

  For many with the fear

  Of noise and night is filled

  With the dread

  Of the worst of it

  That's still to come

  And come they will

  Determined with their

  Puking savagery

  To rape our well-earned sleep;

  I will take revenge

  On the sick-mind pukers

  Of my world, the place

  Where I must live

  Until they're gone

  Or I have Ki
lled them

  Or until I've sucked

  Their Souls from them,.....

  .....It is for that I wait,

  And I’ll survive!

  SPELLBOUND

  She is the daytime hare,

  A beauty of the dark;

  He is an eagle of the night

  Mortal by day;

  As sunlight dims

  The hare becomes the beauty

  And the man soars delta-winged

  into the sky;

  Condemned, they search

  Through endless time

  For unbewitching spell

  And failing,

  The eagle steals the whisper of the wind,

  Fly-dives into her comfort-breast of earth

  And no more pain....

  ......And they live on in dream.

  PUPPY LOVE 1

  A still-new ache

  And pulsing sharp,

  A poignant pain

  Eroding common sense

  Yet not rejected,

  Clings instead

  To trauma-burden

  Prolonging hurt intense

  Vainly, perhaps,

  But borne,

  Mind’s dream,

  Yearning

  A kindred-dream reply.

  PUPPY LOVE 2

  The bell proclaims

  A time for fleeting ardour

  When soul meets soul

  In silent-hope exchange;

  The time is short

  And silence suspends tension

  But not enough

  To quell the pain;

  When silence breaks

  A dialogue of sharing

  Cleaves to the core of privacy

  Then lapses to another calm;

  This cameo-succession

  Of silence touching silence

  Preserves a cycle of enquiry

  With a longing-hint implied

  That the next call might herald

  The return of sharing;

  But time is gone

  And waiting yields

  To apprehension

  Logging days by hour

  The hours by minute

  Waiting in a harsh uncertainty

  For the next call

  A promise

  Of awaited balm,.....

  .....But there’s no call!

  AN ENCHANTED CYCLE

  Clasped safe within a steep-walled cove

  The world outside is somewhere but not here;

  A sheer rock-face

  On either side

  Presents a cushioned

  And embracing screen

  Meeting one end in apex

  And opening a triangle to the sea;

  The rock-walls frame