A Moment
By Cormac Culkeen
The shed, brown with rust,
caught by floodwater, cuts
into a different sky that
pools like mercury. A
spiral of time’s old stone
pierces the wet ground,
a gathered body of cold
rising on lapped ripples,
a soil of shanks, field
grass flattened by storms.
Emerging from the quiet
film of grey above, two
swans pull their wings,
fall silent to the field’s
glassy curve, dip slow,
whisper to the water,
scatter the world, its
quiet day, to prisms,
morse fractals of coined
light, making it new.
John Fahey’s Guitar
By Cormac Culkeen
It starts with a punch, a brush
of strings. Then melodies, ragged
towers emerge, notes bend, seared
like golden sands, and take to air
like cherry blossoms, pinned
to earthen drones,
heralds of slides and bends,
thought removed from itself
before a drowsy storm of ragas,
marshalled by drums, brings us
home on a quiet verge
of dreaming.
Cormac Culkeen
Cormac Culkeen is a writer of poetry, fiction, short stories and nonfiction. He lives in Galway, Ireland, and has completed an MA in Writing at the University of Galway, after completing a BA in Creative Writing. His poetry has been published in the Burning Bush, Skylight 47, The Wild Word, Causeway Magazine, Apricot Press, Bindweed, and Ropes Literary Journal. His debut poetry collection, The Boy with the Radio, was recently published by Beir Bua Press in May 2022. He is one of the founding editors of Ragaire Literary magazine, due to launch in Summer 2024.
Photo credit: Jefferson Santos
Apricot Press 