all the small things I’m glad
you’re interested in all the big things
Swallow
rumour is a first
with no photograph
there is a pace it is a of labour the foot is lifted and laid
with resolution as if the earth were coming up to meet it
it returns it greets
and pushes away centuries
and minutes it moves
my cough today
is more like my father’s than my uncle’s
that’s good one lived
126
Archimedes stole thunder from the labourer
he named it
a shovel
is not
a spade
you didn’t have to
read or write
to know the difference
choice words Blaah blahblah IIIIIIII
you you you you they they they they saynosayyes
mind your own business mind the business of others
language will fuck you in the head and still
a shovel is not a spade
her skin her skin is her skin however it’spelt
if you don’t want to own it
to cut around the wrists and pull then leave her skin
with your eyes and your tongues and your words that break no bones
because a shovel is not a spade
127
and you have no right to her right s’pelt shovel
s’pelt spade s’pelt right s’pelt wrong skin
is where it stops is where it starts
it’s so much intrusion
you think it’s about one thing then it’s another
the shovel remains in the wheelbarrow the spade in the field
it’s a drain
but the ear has always loved the blackbird the linnet
and the thrush
round up all the cuckoos smash all their eggs
it’s terrible what they do send them off to England for love
for lo’ove for lo’ve for love
Aodán McCardle
128