P.D.

I am the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries
And I fish for compliments with a bent pin.
I plant my seeds my moonlight with my wife
Who is a harpist.
She plays behind a curtain in Bunratty Castle
Because she has a harelip.
When she plays for me I dance in luminous boots
On the Farmers' Journal.
But the best crack yet
Was the time I hopped backwards around Ireland on one leg.

Mengele

He sees them sweep the leaves in piles
Remembers Auschwitz. And he smiles.

Home Again

Kaleidoscope's a rattle now for purblind James
Whose shifting shingleworlds collide, escape
Into the sinless sunless.
Ringladen dolldrawered fingertips dance on the tabletop
Viewed at a distance by Wallenstein Weinstein.
Moly could also be absinthe the cerebral impotentising, or chastity,
The word's bones caught in the mindseye's raggi ichese. Punctuate where appropriate with lachrymal stops.
Pray also for the soul of Sigismondo da Malatesta.

Daughter on Mobile

Guess what was on the National Geographic Channel last night. Some small white spotted fish like turbot.
- Brill.
And a polar bear.
- Cool.
and a poisonous snake
- Deadly.
Then I watched a programme about Rod Laver.
- Ace.
And a documentary about heroin.
- Gear.

We must do something about that girl's vocabulary.

^

Biography

Tom Mathews lives in Dublin. He is a journalist, painter, cartoonist and poet, whose work has appeared in many periodicals and journals, including Poetry Ireland Review.