Ciaran O Driscoll wins Cuisle Poetry Slam at White House, Limerick

Pictured Ciaran O'Driscoll, centre, winner of the 2008 Cuisle Poetry Slam at the White House Sat 18th Oct 2008. Also in the picture Barney Sheehan, left, and Dominic Taylor, right, who run the Poetry nights at the White House in Limerick.
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The Winning Poem:

MY HOLIDAY HOME IN IRAQ

In my holiday home in Iraq,
there's a bomb at the front and the back.
When my housemaid comes in to empty the bin
she is strapped to the chin with explosives.
My utility man is a tall Taliban and
he's digging my grave near the roses.

In my holiday home in Iraq,
I'm not having much of a crack.
There's a curfew in force so I sit on my arse
from dusk until dawning while bombs without warning
explode all around me and drive me insane -
they're worse than those concerts in Slane.

From my holiday home in Iraq
if I go out I'll never get back,
so I stay in this room nursing feelings of doom
and think with resentment of unwise investment
and of places so far from this wrecking
such as Tang, Tullyglass, Termonfeckin.

CIARAN O'DRISCOLL