Patricia Walsh - Coffee, Sugar and
Alcoholic
P
atricia Walsh was born in the parish of
Burnfort, Co Cork,and educated at University College Cork, graduating with an
MA in Archaeology. Her poetry has been published in Stony Thursday; Southword;
Narrator International; Third Point Press, Revival Journal; Seventh
Quarry; Hesterglock Press; The Quarryman; Unlikely Stories; and Otherwise
Engaged. She has already published a chapbook, titled Continuity
Errors in 2010, and a novel, The Quest for Lost Éire, in 2014. A
further collection of poetry, titled Outstanding Balance, is scheduled for
publication in August of 2020. She was the featured poet in the inaugural
edition of Fishbowl Magazine, and is a regular attendee at the O Bheal poetry
night in Cork city.
Coffee, Sugar and Alcoholic
Having the power
to read sins, markedly,
withholding
information at the crucial point,
producing like a
conveyor belt, inhumanely
praying thanks for
getting through much today.
Consummate
behaviour becomes the smallest ones,
snapping like a twig
at the least pursuit,
kept at bay like a
trophy unbecoming,
overconsumption of
stimulants all too fair.
Open for business,
bargains coldly staid,
recorded in the
newspaper, circulated wide,
rushed to
protection, bludgeoning same
watched over
shoulders, garnering favour.
Loved out of
measure, celebrity stasis,
staring at
subordinates blowing another mind,
coded entry into a
state of perfection
completely awful,
it s the final line.
Dented for a
thrill, decorum injured.
Stealing music
from a grateful audience,
eating on the
quiet, a recipe for punishment
hit through gloss,
the unmistakable sound.
Homely fires not
very much to ask,
watching from the
familiar, as a man,
blemish-free, the
breakage forestalled,
consumed with
impunity, a bloodied soul.