Tut

He wants to take me, bring me to the time of the Great Pyramids
I'll be dressed in gold
and we'll both go down, down, down
life's everchanging corridor
We are invincible
We are amazing
We are a fantastic couple
destined for greatness
We are the stuff of ancient civilisation
the stuff of dreams
We tunnel back through time
Clay falls from the walls
the earth doesn't settle
Can't see in front of us
bits flying
and where'll he take me in these wrteched helicopter flights of my imagination
To be honest,
I'm all about the bits
He's more abot the bite
I want the propellers to Stop chopping in my head
Let me go forward
Let me have my dream

Hush, hold my hand

Amy Redmond (c) 2008

Bath time dearest

For fun
I wash him
Rub him
Giggle drizzle water down his back

Then I pour half a bottle of white spirits over his head

Screams of horror
Panic, fear of blindness, general ding aling alarm

I didn't mean it
I swear
I'm sorry
Oh God
Oh God
Oh God

I sit back, wet handed
confused
It was a mistake
It was
Or?

Later, quite a bit later
Calm arrives
We dry his eyes
and he trusts again

My turpentine valentine
I'm dizzy, greedy for his flesh

I feel treacherous
Because I really do want him dead

Restraint

my dear mr statue
don't make me go after you with a hammer

easy
let me take
you apart
gently
softly
deeply
piece by piece
and put you back together

Day

I slip into my sweet suede ankle boots
and
venture
into town

Night

I pull on my long brown riding boots
and
proceed
in to town

French Polish

A giggly blond Hungarian
paints my nails
while it rains, rains, rains
days have passed
and these white-tipped appendages
have grown and grown
long and tough
like an eagle
a swan
I must
cut cut cut

Adios Enemigo

Slosh, splash, crash.
F*** You

That's how it ended

How had it begun?

A sun-splashed meeting of eyes
street noise, cigarettes
on the chance
out to dance
on the edge

edge of the bed

and down down down
over time time time



things have drowned

drowned

and glugging throat choked hope
has all but expired
from this once hearty happy chest
of precious things

Now

he

loss lost lose me from thee
lost

fumbling,
stumbling,
never willing to learn
anything

not open to amelioration, of any kind

erring

again and again

brassy, brutal,
bad bad bad

an impoverished lost fool in the world
whose own coat is tattered and torn

No more, thanks.
Enough is enough,
I mistakenly thought it was as good as a feast

More of life. please.

Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal

Not a bit

I don't miss you at all,
not one bit
except this bit
now,
I suppose
but
that's really only to tell you
now that I don't miss you one bit
no, not a bit
not one bit
i'm happy to report

my shitty knick hell!

Bye bye stolen years

Faye is looking over at me and Adam is squeezing the cat while my sun splashed short-wearing family in the '70s radiates from the fridge door. The sounds, tastes and smells of summer and sand and fizzy orange and a mouth full of sea and the twigs and seaweed in your hair – siren youth, where is it gone? Or is it just around the corner? Always here. I feel its sweet breath on my neck. That neck that would have been snapped so easily. Those stolen years are back. Life's mighty clock's big arm has swung heaving the bulldozed earth aside to let me pass on my way.......

braveheart

braveheart, no heart, all heart
I used to worry when my heart was knocking around in my chest
now I consider myself lucky
big heart
one heart
braveheart
free

my dream of you

I do - and you?
'will you let me in please,' she asked
'why won't you let me in?'
'it's cold out here,' he said
'you wouldn't like it.'
'we can't keep having this with you going out and me coming in
and you coming in and me going out,' she complained (softly!)
he looked at this woman
really looked at her
he looked into her eyes and smiled
he took her by the hand
and held her close
and said absolutely nothing
they breathed together soft and easy

soon they learned to breath the one breath together
My God, it took time
but it was worth it

citizen of the world

Yes.

I am a citizen of the world.

You may think it odd
but if you were lucky enough to be a fly on my soul
You’d want to be me. You silly vainglorious fool.

I know I’ve been around for eons
and I’m not the least bit worried about
where I go or when I come

You may be over-ripe and seething
but you’ll have to bear with me as I
Flesh out my own republic,
my field
my house
Myself

You see

I did not kill a baby or maim a child.
I will not kill a baby or maim a child.

So. No more will I do what I am told.
I distrust what I am told.
Do not speak to me of
Hasty land grabs
Tribunal funerals
Citizenry or Politics

When all your sound bites and smart quotes
are poor meat for my famished heart

Hear me
Do you dare
to tell me
to think
what I can think?

Assume nothing. Fool.

(c) Amy Redmond 2004

Virgin on the Rock

A virgin am I to scaling Howth Head
green sea beneath
gulls on rocks squealing
like children when the bell rings

Sink stepping on mattress hay grass
I imagine Jim and Nora and the sex they had.
Transfixed by swishes and squawk, I come to.
'One loose footing and you’re a goner,' my companion warns.

A school group passes, German I think.
I wonder how nervous I’d be bringing youths so high
They fade, we walk, each at our own pace
Breeze brings us along

Ahead in the distance lumbering towards us a large ungainly man
pale-faced perspiring clutching a water bottle
This chap is no veteran
positively sore-thumbish and oozing sleaze

Passing me he leans in close, muttering something about danger
Would I be safe to do this walk alone, I muse
My companion catches up and reckons the fellow reeks of murder
We both agree, we should have pushed him over


(c) Amy Redmond 2005

Middling love on the eastern coast

Did you really want to marry me?
That time in Alexandria
Sitting on the wall, sun-splashed, with the waves crash slapping up against the citadel
Or that time in the Rodeo Bar on 3rd Avenue,
me compulsively shelling nuts,
you drinking 5ft beers
Or in my narrow apartment on 90th street,
me roaring, you screeching and the trucks hurtling past
Or that time in Coney Island both of us pregnant pausing over the untouched borscht
Or by the East River when you scooped your hand up under my dress
and your spectacles fell off
Or on the armchair in the unlit apartment in Queens
with you tasting of doughnuts and ice-cream
Or that time in the seedy mirrored motel where we outdid ourselves and paid by the hour

If I’d have given you the chance, would you?


(c) Amy Redmond 2009

communion

ah, a, the communion,
I made my first.

42 pounds and bought a bike
communing with the handlebars
communicating with the wheels
on common ground
in the park, where else?

I'll never forget the taste and it sticking to the roof of my mouth
shaking hands with the thumbless
peace be with you
the body of christ
on a bike
flying along
the business!

the first and the last
and a few in between

a la carte, is what it's called
the first shall be last?

cattle licks

cattle licks first, cattle licks last
cattle licks living in the past

(c) Amy Redmond 2009