The Poisoned Bride
Reciting the riot act, its first step backwards The impression of punishment lingers fine Rotted in money, the keepsakes infernal Occupation in hearsay, having heard enough The catchcry of failure blaming others. Crying out the emperor, rolling in the fresh Loving where none right, rummaging in malice Rubbed in till it bleeds, ambidextrous argument Holding the nerve until absent notice Wanting too much, resigned to the shelf. Needing feelings too, or at least, some sentiment Fighting for a full name is certainly not the answer Rummaging into debt a time rescinded Aborting for convenience a whistled right Feelings on both sides unwon, defeated. The blinded pantomime, growing into a better shape Parking the likelihood of a matrimonial disease Philosophical retirement won't do a disservice Working into disturbances, feeling pretty good Scribbling at night to uncover the righteous flaw. Longing for deliverance, meted all year round Corrosive dissention rises above the acrostic Stalling at preference, marriage co-starred The next violin swings on its hallowed hours Music for the denouement, a cause less likely.
Recyclable
Wanting to be caught out, not helping itself Not able to, screeching the brakes supreme The solemn sunlight courses through wind-ups The settled matter relieved of its costly duties Stripped of this privilege, fitting in obscurity The bated anticipation goes forth like a lamb. Growing into spite the innumerable cashier More plastic than fish a scourged reality Minding nets, waiting for the Lord to assuage them None being indispensable, got up and left A rock on the church to stand on gracefully Looking back not fit for glory, as advised. Looking out for signs, close cousin of information Gotten away to the bitter end, joyously sick, The unnerved flirting over extreme drinks Revealed by the gift, you strain at intellect Slipping through frosted windows from the outside Desperate hours covering a multitude of sins. The world is already on fire, solitarily said A song for the deaf in an attentive episode Where the next meal is coming from, cannibalised for food The employed self-esteem runs foul of tenacity The pet-name riots through speed and efficiency The average bolt-hole on a capsized entity.
The Generous Gene
Not always writing, at the end of a smart phone Hijacking the email at a diffident time Cracked for marrow, siphoning the bone Future queens of content, poisoning conversation Cutting through silk, mumbling on the quiet. This mark is good for you, like it or otherwise Picking ou husband's on a father's free will, The essential bowing down to the break of dusk The hungry minion basis in its own cold Hitting gibes at the less fortunate, a date sealed. What to give for another leeway! This substance abuse, Flying in your own hands above a universal slob, To cease and desist from the potential snowflakes Crying out scandal, at least before time Inferno in a heart wiping out transgression. A place for the self-absorbed, true, it is, Right time for repentance, paying through the nose, Growing in stately fear, a port in a storm Home truths of hell measuring precious deeds Expelled at midnight through the wedding feast. Rippling through good, the stately mansions bleating Gone through sarcasm in a classroom brawl Lies and conjectures roving through desertion Falling in hate a growth more than cancer burns Not returning ever, evermore aged and foolish.
Patricia Walsh was born and raised in the parish of Mourneabbey, Co Cork, Ireland. To date, she has published one novel, titled The Quest for Lost Eire, in 2014, and has published one collection of poetry, titled Continuity Errors, with Lapwing Publications in 2010. She has since been published in a variety of print and online journals. These include: The Lake; Seventh Quarry Press; Marble Journal; New Binary Press; Stanzas; Crossways; Ygdrasil; Seventh Quarry; The Fractured Nuance; Revival Magazine; Ink Sweat and Tears; Drunk Monkeys; Hesterglock Press; Linnet’s Wing, Narrator International, The Galway Review; Poethead and The Evening Echo. She has also published anovel, In The Days of Ford Cortina, in August 2021.
Flight of the dragonfly 