The Mystery Sound

No, it's not the start-up tone
Of a mobile phone
Nor chalk being scored
Across a school blackboard
Nor the scrape of a half-door
On a cottage flagstone floor
Nor the high-speed drilling
Of a dental filling
Nor the mating-call
Of the (never heard of it!) quetzal
Nor (though it's close) the opening note
Of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
No, none of you got this one
But isn't that all part of the fun?
The answer is ... a human scream
And one of mine, it would seem.
Phone/fax/email if you find that sordid:
This programme was pre-recorded.

At the National Car Test Centre

Not gender, race or creed,
nothing in common but year of reg.,
we humbly surrender the book and key
then pace the forecourt, listening for
the tell-tale rattle of engine mount
the hesitation of overhead cam,
the yea or nay.

So shall it be on The Last Day,
when horns shall summon up the dead
to stand, meek as the new-shorn lamb,
stripped of our hub-caps' proud dressage
but buoyed-up by the quickfire rumour
that, this time round, adultery
won't count.

^

Biography

Iggy McGovern was born in Coleraine and now lives in Dublin, where he lectures in Physics at Trinity College. He has had poetry published in Fortnight, Poetry Ireland Review, The Honest Ulsterman, The Sunday Tribune New Irish Writing, Metre etc. He is a holder of a McCrea Literary Award and a Hennessy Literary Award for Poetry.