AJ McKenna
The Ballad of Private Manning
by AJ McKenna
Vaclav Havel died today:
you spoke of freedom far away,
but in a courtroom in your land,
the witnesses denied the stand
told the story, gave the lie
to that song you sing, the flag you fly.
You are not brave, and neither are you free,
and though you claim it, you do not love liberty.
While Private Manning sits in jail
your Founding Fathers'...
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Thursday 22nd December 2011 10:23 pm
Criminally Fragile
by AJ McKenna
She bites her lip to keep her mouth from moving.
She never stays behind to ask a question after class:
she comes and goes and sits there, just achieving,
pushing up the school’s league table ranking,
never acting out or showing signs of EBD.
Her Belsen ribs, her jutting hipbones, are the things you’ll never s...
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Sunday 20th March 2011 10:47 pm
Alarm Clock Briton
by AJ McKenna
I sit by the harbour
and I wake in bed cursing the moment
when I realised I could set any tune on my phone
as my alarm clock noise, and my own laziness
for never changing it after
our summer trip to Whitby,
where we ate breakfast in the Caedmon cafe,
poky, basic, vaguely disappointing
(so appropriately named after a poet),
wondering if Raoul Moat would be...
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Tuesday 11th January 2011 8:21 pm
Tags: poetry,politics,Nick Clegg can kiss my snooze button
Traume
by AJ McKenna
red cotton briefs that made you look like Sybil Starr,
my room the way it was, the bed half-broken.
I lay, my body rhymed, at last, with yours,
though clothed: the same smooth legs,
same swelling breasts, the same receiving void
between the legs, the origin of worlds,
here, at the end, yours given, mine achieved.
I felt you shaking in my sleep...
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Monday 10th January 2011 9:52 pm
Tags: poetry,gender,sexuality,death,bloody depressing
Previous Entries
- 2011 (4)
- 2010 (17)
Recent Comments
M.C. Newberry on The Ballad of Private Manning (Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:04:14 am)
Dave Bradley on The Ballad of Private Manning (Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:06:53 pm)
Nick Coleman on Collude 2 Exclude (Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:34:31 pm)
ray miller on The Ballad of Private Manning (Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:31:24 pm)
Nick Coleman on Alarm Clock Briton (Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:30:25 pm)
Nick Coleman on Criminally Fragile (Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:22:09 pm)
Nick Coleman on The Ballad of Private Manning (Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:20:13 pm)
Philipos on Criminally Fragile (Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:34:42 pm)
Elaine Booth on Criminally Fragile (Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:26:57 pm)
Petrova Fairhurst on Criminally Fragile (Mon, 21 Mar 2011 05:59:28 pm)
Cynthia Buell Thomas on Traume (Sat, 15 Jan 2011 09:57:42 pm)
Ann Foxglove on Alarm Clock Briton (Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:08:34 am)
Greg Freeman on Alarm Clock Briton (Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:32:21 pm)
Adam Fish on Alarm Clock Briton (Tue, 11 Jan 2011 09:14:57 pm)
Antonionioni on Alarm Clock Briton (Tue, 11 Jan 2011 08:52:18 pm)
