Three Way Street

Evening Shorelines

A starfish lies dead,
riddance from the sea;
outreached itself
on the hackled wave.

I flip it over;
sand spoils the mouth,
soils the cerecloth skin.

I gouge a grave
with my heel,
scuff its pallor
into the seeping hole.

This cover-up
has robbed a child
of that grim lesson.

The sky switches on
like an alien city;
the ocean bed
a galaxy of birth.

Gerard Rochford


The Magic of Poetry

Thank you for buying this
modest slim volume,
The Magic of Poetry.

I’m glad you persevered
as far as this page. After all,
I can’t pull this off by myself.

You don’t mind being a poet’s
assistant for a short time, do you?

Good, then let us begin…

I’ll take the top two corners
of the page while you grab
the bottom really tight.

Now pull with all your might!

Abracadabra!

Do you see what we’ve done?
Together we’ve got to the end
of the page without having
to suffer a single line of poetry.

No, please don’t applaud.
It’s the oldest trick in the book.

Eddie Gibbons


Scene

Sundays dad is coffin-laid,
a haze of drink on the grass.

Mum and I sit by the fire
thawing this impasse;

pray to God to end the weekend rite.
Boiling through the afternoon

anger burgles fright,
the infancy of vengeance starts to grow—

spitting venom, like a snake,
I will snap and he will break;

on her mouth a perfect pout of O.

Douglas W. Gray

Bio: Gerard Rochford is one of eight, father of ten and grandfather of many. Widely published, this is his second collaboration. Co-editor of Storm Magazine and a founder member of the Dead Good Poets. He is also a featured poet on the American web site ‘poetsagainstthewar.’

Eddie Gibbons has two previous poetry collections Stations of the Heart and The Republic of Ted, published by Thirsty Books, an imprint of Argyll Publishing. His poems have appeared in the ‘Postcards for National Poetry Day’ series and The Scottish Arts Council’s ‘Poem of the Month’.

Douglas W. Gray was born and raised in Aberdeen. He has had many jobs but has yet to find a career. He won the Féile Filíochta International Poetry Competition & the Irish Times Perpetual Trophy in 2001 and more recently the Ayr Writers 800 Open Poetry Competition 2005.