By Richie McCaffery.
The Patron Saint of Body Piercings
There is what looks like a spec of mica
on one side of her nose. Cubic zirconia,
diamond of neon amusement arcades.
She had money smoldering to spend
and a nose to pierce in this death-rattle
seaside town, this hen-night riviera.
Wary of pain, she dosed herself well
with off-license paregoric. He punched
a hole in her skin like a clocked-off ticket.
She is not who she once was. Alcohol
has worn its high-heels to dance over her.
Still being roughly good, I’ll go home
tonight and pray for her. Patron Saint
of ill-advised tipsy piercings, please cast
your balms and benisons on my mother.
Priorities
At the Tesco Express on Nicolson Street
a middle-aged man in front of me
reels back in disbelief as a specky
till-wallah tells him he has one too many
items to qualify for the ‘three items
or less’ queue he is in.
He leans down to his toddler son
and says Ben, we can’t get your banana,
is that ok? No reply. And with that
the cashier beeps through a carton
of apple juice, a packet of cookies
and a twenty-pack of Benson and Hedges.
Old Woman on Nicolson Street
She was born when bairns
came in a doctor’s Gladstone
and the dead left as silvery
dribbles on cassock.
As she lay on the curb,
she hoped a policeman
would fish in his pocket
for a silver whistle
with her name on it,
one that could hush
the whole street
and bring her back crying.
The Lonesome Death of Brian Connolly
There were the dragging,
delving weeks afterwards.
Plugged into machines
like a smashed up Strat
shoved through a Marshall stack.
But the last great gig
was falling backwards
down the stairs, pissed,
as if letting go into
the needy arms of the crowd
to surf on laurelled lyric
or bubble-gum adulation.
His heart rattling
like the Glasgow Subway shuttle
between Hillhead and Kelvinbridge.
Riding twenty years
with the same expired ticket.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richie McCaffery was born in 1986 in Newcastle. He has lived in Scotland for the last five years studying Scottish Literature to Masters level and is now working on a PhD. His poems have appeared, or are due to appear, in the likes of Magma, Stand, Envoi, The Interpreter’s House and Northwords Now. He is also the recipient of a Scottish Arts Council bursary in honour of Edwin Morgan.
