Blue Shadow

Saw a man in an ally on the bright side of town
and he watched me watch him (there wasn't anyone else around).

We didn't say hello or so much as nod
and that didn't seem odd, no that didn't seem odd

at all, because I saw that his feet were dragging slow
and he was pushing a blue shadow,

a shadow humped, slumped and taking him down,
just a deep blue shadow (there wasn't anyone else around).


Sorry, couldn't resist that, as I am just back from a marvelous gig, poetry by Paul Muldoon with music by Paul Brady and friend. Traffic was slow (as a blue shadow) because of another protest outside government buildings, this time by the Pro (fetal) Lifers, the flipside to the Savita demo I attended last time. I would have dropped round to see what was happening, but protests are two a penny. The reading wasn't one to miss.

The poems Paul Muldoon read were from a new interim collection, simply called Songs and Sonnets. What I heard sounded more like songs, and song-like rhymes got under my skin (hence the lines above). Here's a sample, from PM's Hillbilly Hilton:

After your grandma has a chew
It's time for a little quilting
That's what passes as pay-per-view
Up at The Hillbilly Hilton
The Hillbilly Hilton an ax is a master key
The Hillbilly Hilton has a vacancy
The Hillbilly Hilton welcomes you and me