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