Thursday morning Afytos
The lightning bolts
Blew the electrics out
And I can’t see my book
I can’t read the laptop
My mobile no longer lights up
But in this interval
Both ephemeral and long
Which lasts between 8am
And a prolonged afternoon
The heavy rain battering
Fragile glass panes and more fragile humans
I see what is usually hidden
I cup my ears to listen
At the café
The couple beside me
Are growing angrier with each other
About their broken plans
They are still within time’s horizon
Refusing to feel or to look beyond
They continue to behave as normal
Man and woman
This is why then we fear the between
So ferociously as it opens
Onto the mauvaise foi of our own selves
Leaving us reeling in the cinematic mirror
At our pure ugliness
At our pure cowardice
About the author:
Jones Irwin teaches Philosophy and Education in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. He has published poetry most recently in Espacio Fronterizo (Borderland/ Espace Frontière), and with Moonstone Press and Tofu Ink Press. He is resident Poetry Critic and Columnist with Red Ogre Review (based in Lancaster, England) and continues to publish a series of short texts on poetics with R.O.R. His first Chapbook of poems, entitled ‘GHOST TOWN’ was published by Moonstone Press, Philadelphia, US, in later summer 2022. His second Chapbook of poems, entitled ‘American Haikus’, was published in Summer 2024, also with Moonstone Press. His next Chapbook, entitled ‘Deep Image or a Painting by Jeffrey Dahmer’, will be published by Tofu Ink Press in 2025.
Part of our Winter 2025 Issue. New stories, poems, and essays now through February 2025.
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