A Poem by John W. Sexton

Discontinued

squid gods
ink our dreams . . .
we wake thoughtless

          the nailing ships
          pierce the depths . . . holds full
          of mermeat

a nosebag of oats
his snuffled meal . . . the sky's beyond
clipped Pegasus

          the palimpsest house . . .
          our host swings a cat
          into many fornevers

telepath murderer . . .
who would
have thought it?

          the new range of
          omnivorous leather suites . . .
          discontinued

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 in 2007.  Also in 2007, he was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry.