www.writerscentre.ie
On Wednesday 1st December the Irish Writers' Centre presents an open panel discussion on how the current economic climate is affecting modern writing in Ireland.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Procrastinating Slave
Another kick
another beating down
across the sweating brow
across the lionless pride
the same work
the same day
over and over
over a barrel
for the less pay
for no gains
the procrastinating slave
the low wage serf
mumbling grave grievances
mumbling red flag revolutions
but all the while toiling
but all the while compliance
another unjust tax
another ill informed law
shout at the television
shout at the headline banner
nothing said to the faceless
nothing screamed at the wall
the wall of sham democracy
the faceless unelected rulers
same day
same year after year
over a barrel
over and over
all the while losing self-worth
all the while working toward slavery
another beating down
across the sweating brow
across the lionless pride
the same work
the same day
over and over
over a barrel
for the less pay
for no gains
the procrastinating slave
the low wage serf
mumbling grave grievances
mumbling red flag revolutions
but all the while toiling
but all the while compliance
another unjust tax
another ill informed law
shout at the television
shout at the headline banner
nothing said to the faceless
nothing screamed at the wall
the wall of sham democracy
the faceless unelected rulers
same day
same year after year
over a barrel
over and over
all the while losing self-worth
all the while working toward slavery
The Money Counters
Even the jokes have lost their pitch
So much greed in the blood
boom and burst like a twenty year itch
the amoral minority leeching
from the translucent skin of ever citizen
Self satirising money whores
counting their coin like a typecast Jew
in a Nazi propaganda film
Self-proclaimed titles on closed doors
The rhetoric of the Age dripping from lip
Protagonists propagating
systems of honour without honour
Leviathan
Below are the white crosses sown in the fields
of Passiondale and Normandy
Those soldiers of two terrible wars
might spin in their claustrophobic Hades
Open skull mouth anguish
all that blood and pain was for nought
The flags of Nations are lowered
cowed down … unsung songs … unheard voices
A Leviathan has risen unchecked
a Monster not of weak flesh like Hitler
This creature is made of ideas and ideals
unobtainable but for numbers on a page
Those numbers were once people
now to be altered … deleted … moved on
No army can be sent to defeat this Thing
we have created from bureaucracy and corruption
Where every dictator has failed
It brings unanimity and slavery to the free
The Stupid Cow
She follows untethered
not heeding the passing signs
even the distant shape of the abattoir
that loom like a black hole
in an otherwise pleasant blue sky
goes unnoticed by her happy eyes
Oblivious she follows the fools
that lead in a long line
ordered and numbered so that
the meat can be cleaved from the bone
with greater ease
and swallowed raw
with a pinch of salt to lessen the taste
Watching the fate of those in before
the Happy Cow waits in line
humming to herself a familiar tune
but not raising any protest
how the butchers laugh as they kill her
too late the panic in her eyes and the
scream frozen in her cut throat
not heeding the passing signs
even the distant shape of the abattoir
that loom like a black hole
in an otherwise pleasant blue sky
goes unnoticed by her happy eyes
Oblivious she follows the fools
that lead in a long line
ordered and numbered so that
the meat can be cleaved from the bone
with greater ease
and swallowed raw
with a pinch of salt to lessen the taste
Watching the fate of those in before
the Happy Cow waits in line
humming to herself a familiar tune
but not raising any protest
how the butchers laugh as they kill her
too late the panic in her eyes and the
scream frozen in her cut throat
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
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