BOUGHT OUT 


no end of expense when technology fails

laughing at whatever an insult too far,

the grey shawl comes to soften the din,

lights on every corner hold their ground,

singing against will a feat little ignored.


Expense after injury, the latest models burn,

pressing escape buttons in an effort to function

witty cards over function, anagrams of rock,

pre-packaged necessities, overkill the situation,

advertising other sorrows over lightbulbs fine.


Inviting hatred a prerequisite to divine love,

shut down to resurrect from despised society,

staring at creatures dying from overloaded coffee

bright eyes, like an idiocy, cancers to the end,

wine licence beats the drum of all the love within.


The comfortable makeshift café advertises its wares,

watching phones like hawks settling on perches,

waiting for the next kill, losing the progressive

disrobing for the lost heat mourned, an open door,

solitary confusion demanding an explanation.


Not wanting collective solitude, enough to be alone,

where limited letters pay for hardy demolition

ugliest situation in the city begging disbelief

coming down slowly after a useful denigration

holding technology to ransom, fixing a drink to same.








Patricia Walsh was born in the parish of Mourneabbey, in north Co Cork,and educated at University College Cork, graduating with an MA in Archaeology in 2000.  Her poetry has been published in Stony Thursday; Southword; Too Well Away Journal; New Wasteland Magazine; Quail Bell Magazine; The Poetry Collective;  Quiver Review; Blazevox Magazine; and The Rational Creature.  She has already published a chapbook, titled Continuity Errors  in 2010, and a novel, The Quest for Lost Éire, in 2014.  She was the featured poet in the inaugural edition of Fishbowl Magazine, and a further novel, In The Days of Ford Cortina will be published in late 2021.