John W. Sexton


The New Shift

a way of folding distance …
warts of Oort, her face in
the rorrim pond

by bucket down
the well of souls … our tau rope
slackens at the Big Klang

Earther, we bring you spacewards
in a bottle … milked aura
of Einstein

three centuries
of the void … ship pulls a crew
from the vending machine

souls of astronauts
gather into a clump … I name this bang
Whimper

yay, upon my forehead
the walking cactus scratched:
Ninx loves Priscilla

is the new shift
ready yet? … in the labour vats
the tadproles sprout limbs

grease from human fat …
things eased up for androids
once we boiled the dole queues



The Tip of His Tie

space mission … whirligig beetles
dance the stars reflected
on the pond

cheap to run,
you’ll hardly feel the motion …
granny’s time travel commode

a face for every day …
his heptahedron
marsupial girlfriend

Five Two Two
Unicorn Avenue … the postman
arrives in a wish

even higher, higher, we say …
by stairs carpet
to the glazed moon

the zero-g diet …
lunch
goes floating by

Trump sends forth
the tip of his tie … we’re gunna
sartorialize ‘em

you drinking
that polonium tea or not?
Death is sick of waiting

There is no, I repeat no
Avian Flu
In Cloud-Cuckoo-Land



The Price?

the Difference Accordion …
whatever tune you play
Death dances

the dog buries his master
piecemeal over the hills ...
fetch me back, boy

double whiskey
and comet ice please ...
the price? astronomical

a night watch
the ogre’s patchwork quilt
of mummified human faces

by heaven, you’re beautiful …
Dora Gray’s
final transition

between the cow’s horns:
St. Elmo’s fire ... turn left
at the fork in the sky

nuclear orphanage …
all the point threes
of a child line up

drew us a diagram ...
hence, our universe
is that diagram

to keep you warm my child …
she knits some of the sunlight
into the scarf




John W. Sexton lives in the Republic of Ireland and is the author of six poetry collections, the most recent being Futures Pass (Salmon Poetry, 2018). Under the ironic pseudonym of Sex W. Johnston he has recorded an album with legendary Stranglers frontman, Hugh Cornwell, entitled Sons Of Shiva, which has been released on Track Records. He is a past nominee for The Hennessy Literary Award and his poem The Green Owl won the Listowel Poetry Prize 2007. In 2007 he was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry.
 
 
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