God in a bottle

David G O'Sullivan

 

Robert did not know much about God

But at 16 his father was shot in front of him.

Standing out the front of his house,

He watched the murderer,

A tall man,

Wipe his father’s blood from his face,

The sun shining from his black curly hair.

 

 

Robert sat in the carpark at 23

In the driver’s seat of his car

And thought about his father’s last breath.

His girlfriend climbed in beside him, and she smiled,

The white of her teeth and the warm sun from her eyes

Made him feel whole again.

 

He still did not know much about God at 31

But looking at the red neon

He thought he could see an angel

Moving about on the shoppingcentre’s cold steel roof,

And he dreamed of what his baby might be.

 

At 45, God was only a small thought in his…

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The freezing night

David G O'Sullivan

Standing outside the hot potato store
That sits beside the Irish pub and the supermarket
I saw a man making his way along the street.
He had one arm and one leg,
Both on the right-hand side.
He sat in an old-fashioned wheelchair
And by stamping his only leg
He pulled himself forward, slowly.
He had an old thin face
And a grey beard,
So he looked like a veteran of the Napoleonic war.
His right arm twisted sadly around the armrest
And his left sleeve was pinned to his chest
Like a torn flag.
I watched him pass.
I thought he would ask me for money,
But he continued slowly, in silence.
The night was freezing,
The man looked desperate,
As if he had nowhere to spend the night.
Outside the pub, he stopped, turned slightly and looked long into the dark street,
A traffic light glowing red
Danced…

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To a brother, now gone.

David G O'Sullivan

Adopted by wolves,

The baby was.

Taken on a heavy moon night

When the wet grass turns to ice, and the wind investigates what the day left behind.

The gray mother-wolf carried the tiny boy

Through the hollow and into the forest.

Brushing his tiny face against soft leaves

And supple branches, until turning twice she curled up with the babe

And fell asleep.

The baby lay for a while in the heavenly fur,

Snuggled with the warm animal, smelled

The dog smell,

Framed by the damp forest scent

and looked out past the fur and leaves,

glimpsing the silver apples of the moon.

This baby, raised on bitter wolf milk

Grew stronger and dog-wise

Until one day, in a clearing, when the boy was older,

The pack saw humans on a brown leaf path.

They froze, and turned, fleeing into the thick trees

Of that autumn palace.

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Stars over Pirate Bay

David G O'Sullivan

The white stars do not lie

Or rewrite history.

Their silent distance,

Their authority

Makes for pretty nights.

The stars reflect off the bay,

And as we sit in the sand

We glance up and see those white lights just above the trees.

Do you remember running our hands through the tufts of crabgrass?

Did you see the meteor?

I swear it must have crashed into the sea.

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Return of the beloved

David G O'Sullivan

She takes her coat off and leaves it on the kitchen bench,

turning out the lights, she gives life to a flame, lighting a candle,

we sit down by the window and speak in whispers

about people we both know.

A woman from our school died,

a sister divorced,

a child from our hometown, drowned.

Exhausting our gossip,

we begin to talk about God,

politics, movies, and the future

until the old clock chimes out three a.m.

and the candle passes away slowly from old age.

I take her into my room

and we hold each other

sleeping through the morning

and missing the traffic that races to desks in white offices.

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