noel maddock

Kate is a Kiwi
Irena Estonian
Momo and Auko, from downtown Japan
Sarah is French Canadian
...

You care
Not to offend
Like a signature you've practiced since childhood
Yet it still feels counterfeit
...

Cupán tae gan brioscaí
Imní é
Brioscaí gan cupán tae
É sin a phlé
...

One
Take the count
Stay down
Don’t mind the crowd
...

Gulls keening out loneliness
An east wind turns thoughts to ice
Considering this search for meaning
As artifice
...

This happiness continues
A young stream sparkling over small stones
Some turn, some hold their ground
Light catches as droplets come into their own
...

Dare for the shock-quakes
Some litmus test precipitate
A frozen stop, a backward step
As ‘nay' pervades a gassing of
...

This joy is a fever
Perspiring bliss droplets
As blessing that renews
The joy, like the mental and physical
...

Left to his own devices
An air of chug chug communication takes
Not just precedence but overtures
Its self established way through
...

He helped himself to attitude
And he fed it in his sleep
He hooned the highways of complacency
Prowled the back roads of deceit
...

A scream that refuses comfort
For the culture of our history’s sake

Our parents dream for us
...

To the space between then and now
I bow down
To the hairline fracture in my mask of ignorance
I smile an imperceptible smile
...

Turn and it’s gone
Opportunity on a catapult
Faith on a dirty weekend
Turn, and it’s the same old same
...

Confessions of a qualm play:
I’m bothered by notions
Of what to, not to say.
It seems to worsen with age.
...

I count the sessions like shekels
The greed absorbed into the auto-angst
The number short of feeding what really matters
...

From my heart
You took me
From my heart
I gave you back
...

We look to communicate
For fear of boring ourselves
Into an early grave
But when it comes to disclosure
...

His eyes won’t often come to mind
His ears select a careful sound
Yet have a tendency to burn
...

We could nail it earlier to head off the doubt
That doldrums the blood flow
But it's the returning salmon's memory
That hesitates first
...

MUST HURRY THIS ONE
WITH THE JOURNEY PENDING AND
THE OBOLS WIRED THROUGH
THE TIME FOR LAST GOODBYES PASSED
...