Trip to Pollardstown
 

In a rare meadow

there is music and dancing still,

each species at the crossroads

strumming and drumming

for all they are worth,

beating out life’s pulse;

the grasshopper’s

percussion of wings

against legs scoured

with microscopic pegs

sets a rhythm

to beat the band –

while along the wetlands

on and below the surface,

water boatmen

lonesome perhaps

stridulate

their moog swings,

whirligigs spin revolutions –

beetles and bugs

of all persuasions:

making diminutive

voices heard,

relative to size

the loudest animals on Earth.

 

These secret raves can go on for hours

lifetimes, aeons –

Gatecrash the party?

keep your nose to the wind

and ear to the ground.

C Pete Mullineaux – Sept. 2012

Pete Mullineaux lives in Galway, Ireland. He has published three collections: Zen Traffic Lights, (Lapwing 2005) A Father’s Day (Salmon Poetry 2008) and Session (Salmon 2011.) He has been anthologised widely in Ireland, UK and the US including the prestigious Poetry Daily website and about.com/poetry.