Poem Of The Week 'Drive By' by Steve Murray

(Drive by)


'twas often times
in Charlie Byrnes (book shop)
I would amble through the (crowded)
section (titled) 'new irish writing'.
Past the (bustling) best sellers (sector)
by the tables where poets mutter
(to themselves) flicking through
(pages of) Chaucer (and Yeats).

What's more, (I hasten to add)
'twas often times I would release
(on my travels) a long, steady,
(drawn out) slipstream of silent,
(fetid), flatulence and survey the unfolding
(facial) expressions of undulant rancour,
(revulsion) and down right disgust
from the (sparsely) populated section titled 'Shakespeare',
where I watch smiling (to myself)
with that feeling (of peculiar pride)
that (only) flatulence can inspire.
A ritual (affectionately) termed

'The drive by'.

Stephen Murray was born in Dublin in 1974. He was educated in Richmond , Surrey and was three times award winner in the WH Smith and Observer Young Writer of the Year Award. He moved back to Ireland in 1996 to his family's native Limerick and currently lives in Connemara, Co Galway where he works as a stonemason. In April 2005, he won the Cúirt International Festival of Literature Poetry Grand Slam for “Love Noir” and, as the Cúirt Slam Champion, traveled to perform in Chicago in autumn 2005. He is regular MC at the North Beach Nights poetry slam in Galway.