CONOR O'CALLAGHAN
“Midweek”

____________________

Take it for what it is:
a chance to lie low
outside the weekend’s brackets,
to mark off time in minutes,
peat briquettes,
the cluster of units
a cursor eats up.
The sameness of distant bells
and a digital clock’s ellipsis
and cars parked in a row
and the alarm waiting to trip
remains as good as intact—
apart from a dash to the line and back,
the night sky something else.

CONOR O'CALLAGHAN

"The whole island"

____________________

agrees they should be
ashamed of themselves,
whoever they are.

On the late walk
home, I pause
at the top of the road
and make out

between waves
the whispers
of poachers
in a boat

in the stars,
their unwise
laughter that
can’t be helped.