A Poem by John W. Sexton

Wheezing an Ecstasy

another ossified cloud
shatters
China Town

          forelocked shut . . .
          the hundred-headed
          circular horse

wheezing an ecstasy . . .
the astronauts survey
an angel's flake of dust

          annihilated all that's made . . .
          they rest
          in existential beige

a soft knock of the hammer?
. . . inside the apricot
a strange gnarled house

          dropped a knife
          in the Nolichucky . . .
          the hills limp to a stop

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.