Crusade

Cityscapes lure,

Cajoling, plámásing,

the promise:

all Freedom.

Merrily, we surrender

Ourselves to

Ravenous concrete,

rub ourselves against it

Sacrifice ourselves to the

endless light, and heat,

And sound,

Hoping to imbue

Our love

Our hope

Our kindness

      (Or desperate)

Starving for

Something other to

Fill-

       Us-

              -up.

Happily, we ignore

leaching minerals (how)

The roughness

Scrapes us raw

Hollows out marrow.

(We are so very

Hungry.)

Oblivious to bones,

We grow droughty,

Arid, in the face of

Such promise.

Seduced by ire -we

carnivores all,

worship the ritual,

Rendered insatiable.

Tongues lashing, useless things,

Resisting the yielding flesh of mouth, hunting something hard.

Horror(s) hounding

All our warmth

to fury.

We crawl/run/fly

Emerging

From such hard places

Branded/scoured/scalded

Craving the softness

Of hill

and field

and soil sodden;

blessed cold of water.

The quiet to

return

to form

once more.

 Caoimhe Courtney is a special needs teacher living in rural Co. Cork. She has lived and worked in the U.K. for the past two decades. Having returned to Ireland last year, she is now focusing on caring for her family full time, whilst writing where and when opportunity allows. She is due to be published in Stripes Literary Magazine’s May edition.