A Poem by John W. Sexton

Arriving at Platform 7

consciousness
locked in the ground
mudfish

             leaf-veins . . .
             Shiki perceives the folds
             for an origami universe

Lucifer climbs
the in-pipe . . . attaches
a gerund to is

             the Originals
             were burdened with souls and God . . .
             clones reclaim Eden

its thoughts light
its voices quickened
. . . the helium mind

              a storm arriving
              at platform 7 . . .
              we board the rain

John W. Sexton lives in the Republic of Ireland and is the author of five poetry collections, the most recent being The Offspring of the Moon (Salmon Poetry, 2013).  He also created and wrote The Ivory Tower for RTE radio, which ran to over one hundred half-hour episodes from 1999 to 2002.  Two novels based on the characters from this series have been published by the O'Brien Press:  The Johnny Coffin Diaries and Johnny Coffin School-Dazed, which have been translated into both Italian and Serbian.  He is a past nominee for The Hennessy Literary Award and his poem "The Green Owl" won the Listowel Poetry Prize, 2007.  Also in 2007, he was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry.