Absorbed Poem by Colm Keenan

Four fields to be one
and digger still away
from filling in pitfalls
razing all obstacles
twisted growth
as per oral contract
slurred over pints

Drove tractor
loaded trailer with logs
sawn by brother
picked out among branches and briars
snow-topped banks
frozen ditches
thorns piercing gloves
one through left boot into underfoot
an inch long in its warmth

Take-away in brother’s car
grease-darkened bags
chips dipped in ketchup
steamed-up windscreen
breath through straw melted drop by drop cylindrical chunk
New Year’s Resolution: improve Castellano
New Year’s Resolution: jog block twice weekly
New Year’s Resolution: write philosophic treatise

Nephew came
help and hindrance
high-pitched gabblebox
seven years' abstract reeling
kif-killing caboodle of whys

Trailer full
clamped well
January sunset
nephew pointed to half-moon:
'When I get my telescope workin’...'

Throttle up into bowl of field
loop of gate’s rope over post
cabin siren rotating amber light
on a little less partition

In bed
tossing and turning eight hours of work
replayed blackthorns breaching pale mantel
blue hands up to face to protect
reckless trove from the imaginary
like a child
who'd ofttimes regarded recoil of barbed wire

How vulnerable this flesh!
its baubles of belief -
and whether lidded or no,
these sickly green eyes
are always but a thrust away
from seeing.