Ian Mullins – 2 poems

Expresso

            

Ride a train once and it’s yours

forever; no matter

how many strangers occupy

your seat or fog the same factories,

            

the people standing by fire exits

with smoke on their fingers

will always be marked

on your own private map

of triumphs and teases,

failures and fiascos smudging

            

any sense of destination.

So when you look from a window

all you see is a clouded mirror,

nothing but two hours lost

on a train; before it owned your ass.

            

Visitors

            

Words own me,

burrowing into my ears

then burning into my brain,

building new homes

to breed more words

            

and soon there’s

a whole town in here,

screaming laughing

and living their lives;

while the host they infect

can do nothing

            

but take every punch,

every word;

be part of the crowd

marching to the cliff

tumbling their children

down with their pride,

            

then laughing when they

hit the ground running.

            

Ian Mullins ships out from Liverpool. Laughter In The Shape Of A Guitar (UB) struck few chords in 2015. Almost Human (Original Plus) was let loose in 2017. Masks and Shadows (Wordcatcher) took off in 2019. Take A Deep Breath (Dempsey and Windle) followed in 2020.